The more I theorize about photography and art, the more I’m starting to realize — art and photography isn’t about depicting some visual “truthfulness” of reality. Instead, it’s painting and presenting our own version of reality with others!

For example for the Italian Futurist artist, Umberto Boccioni, you can see that his art works weren’t about creating “realistic” and picture-perfect depictions of reality. Instead, he wanted to create art to show the dynamism, power, and organic growth and movement of humans and technology! And his artwork shows this very well!

Some sketches I made on iPad and Procreate app:

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This is what I’ve been attempting to do in my photography — not to photograph what things look like in reality, but to show how things feel like!

For example with CINDY PROJECT, depicting and expressing my love for her.

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When you’re shooting street photography, empathize with your subjects. Feel their emotion and soul, and try to channel that feeling into your photos!

To me, a photograph without soul is dead.

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Ultimately, make photos that embed your own soul into your photos. For example with your photography, ask yourself:

Why am I the only person who can make these photos? What am I trying to say with my photos, or what emotion or feeling am I trying to convey to the viewer?

Disregard the commentary and critique of others; don’t let the feedback of others be a barometer of how good your photos are. It’s good to get feedback from others on your photos to help augment your own judgement of your photos, but ultimately it’s your own decision whether your photos are good or not.

Shoot with your soul,
ERIC