What’s your style?
This is an easy question for me to answer regarding my clothing. I like comfy and casual, loose-fitting, not faddish or trendy. My preferred daily attire of jeans and a t-shirt, flannel shirt, or sweatshirt and tennis shoes or Birkenstocks has not changed much in the last forty years. The sizes have just gotten a little bigger.
As far as food, my style is definitely home cooking with a little comfort food. I don’t like “fussy” foods. I don’t want to have to use fancy names, ingredients, or kitchen tools.
My style of music composition is easy to categorize as well – minimalism with a hint of neo-classicism.
Our home reflects the same stylistic elements as my clothing and food – simple, casual, and comfortable. I don’t like fussy here either. There will always be an Afghan (aka dog blanket) on the couch. You can put your feet up on whatever you can find to put them on. Hot coffee is always ready in the coffee pot and iced tea in the fridge. And, you are always welcome…as long as you are not expecting a fussy environment! We live here and have no housekeeper so there is usually a dish or two in the sink, books and newspapers laying around, and very likely a stray glob of dog hair on the floor somewhere. Call it our style.
However, when it comes to photography, I have not figured out my style. Yes, there are certain subjects that I like to photograph, but every other photographer shoots them as well, so it is not a fondness or talent for a certain subject that speaks to my style. I often include quotes on my photos, but I’m not sure that that is a stylistic element. Many others do that as well, I have no particular “look” to which I am drawn. My daily shots simply reflect my daily moods; therefore, their look is all over the place as my moods are equally all over the place. Lol!
I have fretted for a long time over the fact that my photography does not have a look that is unique to me. Recently though, I had an epiphany. There are several photographers whose work I see regularly and who have a personal style, one that is easily recognizable. I have seen so many of their photos done the same way over and over and over again that I now find them boring, uninspired, and lacking creativity. I shocked myself with this realization. Maybe I’m glad that I never discovered a style!
So what then is style when it comes to photography? Is having an always identifiable look to one”s work a positive or negative thing? Is it OK to be all over the place in your choice of subjects and mood? Does it really matter how my personal style is described by me or anyone else? Do I still want or need a personal style?
Maybe the best I can do is make people ask, “I wonder what the lady in the jeans and t-shirt is photographing today?”
What’s your style?
I love this, Kris. So candid. You make a really great point about photography style. I think it’s perfectly okay to imitate the style of a really good photographer…for a while….in order to explore and learn. It was true of the great masters of art. As apprentices, they practiced their skills by copying the master’s work. But THEN, they branched out and developed their own style. And their style even continued to evolve throughout their lives. Sounds to me that’s what you’ve been doing all this time!