While the majority of my street photography is taken while wandering aimlessly, now and again I’ll set myself a task to spur on some creativity. These tasks focus on creating a collection of images over time - it could be during one single walk, or over the course of many and are usually based around one specific thing, with some examples being colour, location, a certain subject or even weather.
This is not uncommon, and many street photographers do this as a way of building a portfolio of work and stories that come together. However, aside from the end result, there is one major benefit I have found to setting yourself a project: it’s a really effective way of beating lulls in creativity and boosting motivation. Forcing yourself to work systematically and with intent, instead of spontaneously, can often bring about a spike in inspiration.
One of the great things about street photography is its randomness, in finding stories in the scenes you happen to stumble across and in creating moments from the everyday, and so to limit yourself to a specific set of rules, while it makes things a little more tricky, gives you a clear path to move down.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get what can only be described as a ‘cloudiness’. Sometimes, it’s almost too busy to find meaningful scenes and stories. And so limiting your view to certain guidelines helps dissolve that cloud.
After a significant period of time of feeling extremely lost, demotivated and creatively stunted, I took to the streets of London to try and capture some unique, abstract scenes that put colour at the forefront. My aim was to utilise motion or reflections to capture colour that took up the entire frame.
It was an enjoyable and motivational task that helped pull me out of that funk I was seemingly stuck in. The reason for this is simple: it was so unlike what I usually do and so I had to really think and focus on how I could obtain these sorts of images.
I ended up with some images I really am proud of. The middle image below is of a textures window in a Soho bar, the lights through the window creating a scene that resembles a painting, rather than a photo, while the one on the right is the reflection from the wet ground in Piccadilly Circus. Slowing down the shutter speed and giving the camera a little nudge helped create an image full of motion, the blurred figure staggering through the frame, drenched in what almost looks like the Italian flag.
Are they my favourite images I've ever taken? Are the technically outstanding? Will they will any awards? No. And that's fine. I did something different, I set myself a task, and as a result I hold these images dear because they're the result of a mission I gave myself.
The moral of the story is that sometimes, limiting yourself can often allow you to see more.
You can check out some of my favourite projects here.
