wolfe with an e's blog
Chapter 21: Towards an individual style.
The Leica Q2 Monochrom journal.
Many of us want to think of ourselves as styleless. We’re jacks-of-all-trades that can shoot any genre. To some extent that’s true. But as photographers we’re defined by what we shoot, how we shoot, how we edit and how our work is remembered. These all lead to images that are distinctly us.
If you think having a style is avoidable or a bad thing, just put any popular photo by Ansel Adams up against any popular photo by Bill Brandt. It’s immediately clear who shot which image. These black-and-white masters may have felt they didn’t have a style, but obviously they’re known for one. Adams shot things other than Yosemite, like a Library of Congress collection of his images from a Japanese internment camp in WWII. But it’s his majestic nature shots that are most remembered.
Style is defined by limitation. I’m shooting in cemeteries with a monochrome, fixed, wide-lens camera. That’s all extremely limiting. And that’s before I even do any post processing. The point? The camera, lens and subject matter you choose have already defined you as a photographer and put you on the road to a style. That’s not to say you can’t shoot other subjects. But we often find ourselves drawn by a subject we’re passionate about and plan our camera time around that.
Editing has become a big influence on personal style. We now have so many amazing tools at our disposal. But I find myself gravitating to certain sliders in Lightroom and have unconsciously created a workflow of how to edit. While I love the contrast of black and white, I also love rich grays and have found slider combinations to emphasize those. Again, that’s contributed to style.
In having a style there’s always the danger of getting niched. You become known for one genre (as Adams was) or one look (as Brandt was) and that’s what viewers expect from you. But to be honest, if you get good enough at your style to be pigeonholed, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
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Photography Leica Q2 Monochrom