How do I find my photography style?

Your style finds you

A question I often get asked at my workshop is ‘how do I find my style?’ The answer is simple - you don’t. Your style finds you. What I will say though is that your style is nothing less than the totality of your life experience. And the content you consume is a huge part of that. Your style is your style. That’s it. You can’t find your style. Your style is what it is whether you like it or not?

It is a consequence of everything you consume. If you spend most of your time looking at wedding photography on Instagram then your style is going to be informed by that. I don’t look at any wedding photography and I’ve photographed a lot of weddings.

I think it’s fine to check in from time to time to see where the industry is at for example but I’m simply not interested in my work being informed by what is already out there. Otherwise I’m second at best. What you consume, content-wise is so very important.

Your preference informs your style

If you watch a shitload of popcorn type movies; Armegeddon, GhostBusters 2, The Mummy Returns, then your work is going to be informed by that. It’s also about the music you listen too, the books you read, and the photography you are looking at. I love popcorn films as much as the next person. It’s great to switch off for sure.

And … predominantly I watch a lot of quality films often with great cinematography. I always have. It was never really something I had to effort. I particularly adore the work of Emanuel Lubenski, Roger Deakin, Tonino Delli Colli, and Gordon Willis. I listen to good music. For sure I’ll sling an episode of the x-factor on now and again but it’s a tiny minute part of my content diet.

You might say here that everything is preference. It is. And that’s a fact. But your preference is going to inform your style. So if you don’t like your style then I’d take a little look at the kind of content you are consuming. And it’s not just what you’re looking at and listening to. It’s how you’re doing it. I rarely look at photography online.

Be yourself

If I’m looking at photography online I tend to skim through like some wired up mad hatter on the hunt for god knows what, constantly flipping ahead to the next thing, whereas if I’m sat down with coffee having created a little time for myself I tend to ponder, to take my time. There’s something about slowing down that faciliates what I’m being inspired by sinking in on a deeper level.

I would hazard a guess that every movie I’ve ever watched, every song I’ve listened to, every book I’ve read, gig that I’ve been to finds it’s way into my work somehow. It informs my photography. Whether I like it or not. I have no choice in that from this vantage point.

What I do have a choice in from this point on is having an awareness of the content I’m consuming. I can’t change the past but I can shift my diet so that the future benefits. Another thing regarding style. You can’t copy someone else's. I’ve seen people attempt to do it. What we’re missing when we try to replicate what someone else is doing is one important factor - we haven’t had that person's experience.

We have no idea what movies they’ve watched, books they’ve read, the challenges they’ve encountered in their lives. It’s like tasting a beautiful complex dish served up in a restaurant by a master chef and attempting to replicate it from the taste. It’s futile. You haven’t lived their life.

Have you ever watched a movie that’s a copy (not inspired by) of say a Francis Ford Coppola Film? He directed the Godfather. There’s just something missing have you noticed. It’s like it has no depth. A Coppolla film has this incredible something else going on. It’s personal. It’s confident because it is 100% him being brave enough to be himself.

You can’t mine the depths of someone else's experience. You can’t see what they are seeing. We don’t have access to the substance. All we can see, at best, is the postcard. So be yourself. You can’t try to be yourself. What you have to do is stop trying to replicate or be something you are not. Then who you are will shine through.

Relax into your own experience

We have to work toward relaxing into our own experience because what you are seeing in a photograph that sings to you is a photographer attuned to his or her sense of self. Relax into you.

A big influence in my work for sure are the Beatles and the sixties and seventies.

It isn’t something I’ve ever tried to do or make happen. I’ve never taken a photograph and thought I’m going to make this look like a retro sixties photograph. Not once. And in hindsight, when I look back at my work, It’s obvious to me that that period of sight and sound is a huge influence on my work.

There is one photographer, possibly above anybody else. Astrid Kirchherr. She photographed the Beatles in the sixties. Possibly the first images are taken of them as a band. She was the girlfriend of John Lennon's best friend Stewart Sutcliffe who died very young. Astrid’s work sung to me like nobody else's and was why I picked up a camera.

And I never once thought to replicate a shot she’d taken. But I see her influence in my work along with all of everything else that I love and like. At the time of writing this Astrid, bless her, has passed away aged 81 and I dedicate this little post, for what it’s worth, to her special memory.