Dilution

Watering down your strong body of work…

The digital age of photography can be a fantastic and instant form of photography. However it can bring many problems too.
Great photo hosting sites such as Flickr, allow us to upload our photos into an online gallery of work to show the world.

To get straight to the point, most people will just post up anything as well as their favourite photos. To become a great photographer you must realise when to keep a photo, and when to be brutally honest with yourself and delete or not upload the photos in question. In order to have a strong body of work, you should ask yourself is this photo truly memorable? Will this photo really connect with the viewers emotions, intelligence or imagination?

With regards to Street Photography I see many boring photos and normal photos of just people. The photo just looks like a random snapshot that has been taken with little thought or just because their was a tiny element that caught the photographer eye but nothing amazing.

I am not saying all my photos are amazing, and very often I will delete my own photos that don’t say much or have that special moment or soul. If you are just happy taking photos, then this post and my opinion does not matter; go out and enjoy taking photos. However if you want to be taken seriously, then at least think…

When studying the true masters of Photography, you are lucky if they have a few keepers per year, but when you add up their keepers (best photos) over a period of time. You can see a strong undiluted body of work.

The point of this short and direct blog post, is simply this, be super honest and very critical of your work and only show your best photos! Anything that is average, hide or delete as it will be that… Average!

A truly great photograph shows a pivotal movement, a structure, a captured essence, a very unique situation, tells a story. It evokes emotion, art, thought and a reflex visualization. Go and study the masters, read their books, view their photos, analyse and devour their content. Not to copy their style, but to deepen your understanding of what makes a great photo and a strong body of work.

Zeno