journal

How to Establish a Personal Photographic Style

We all struggled with the concept of personal style as well as with the perceived necessity to somehow acquire a personal style. I remember the discussions we had among students first at the Beaux Arts, where I studied painting and drawing, then later at the American Center, also in Paris, where I studied photography. These discussions centered around how we were going to develop a personal style and how this was going to happen. At the time we could not visualize what that style was going to be nor if it was going to be. Our discussions regularly ended with the belief that personal style developed over time, that we had to wait, work at our current projects and expect a unique vision to emerge from our hard work at some point in the future.

The above strikes me as the beginning of a nugget o' wisdom. In reality, there is no personal style. There is only absolute excellence. What looks like 'personal style' is a shadow, a reflection, of the Best Way. Some of us (sometimes, it feels like the minority of us) are striving for the Best Way. There are nearly infinite Almost Best Ways (or Good Enough Ways, same difference), and when we figure one of those out, we consider it a Personal Style.

I'm no relativist. There are stupid, obviously Wrong Ways. Stupid, I say. See randi.org for a great list of Wrong Ways, for example. But My Way? It's probably wrong too. The only Right thing about it is that I'm still looking for the Right Way..

Never, ever ever blog whilst drunk. It ain't pretty. :P