Anti-Romanticism in Photography

Make photos anywhere and everywhere:

A thought:

Don’t delay your photography. Start a Photography project in your own city and neighborhood! 

Don’t wish you lived somewhere else; make the best possible photos in your own hood! 

This is my line of thinking:

1. No matter how interesting the city you live in, you’re going to be bored of it sooner or later. 
2. Most people are bored of their own city (whether it is in the countryside, or an “exciting” metropolitan city). 
3. Thus, perhaps it is best to just shoot in your own city, and figure out how to motivate yourself to shoot in your own city or neighborhood. 

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Anti romanticism in photography 

If we study the history of photography, there is always this obsession for the exotic, for the foreign, for the romantic, and is geared towards travel, the sensational (war), or intense social documentary (drugs, poverty, mental illness).

Thus this is the problem which happens:

We think that non-sensational photos are boring. 

For example, most people are “inspired” to shoot photos when they’re traveling or in a foreign place. Why? Because everything is different, unique, and “exotic”.

But what if we took an anti-romantic approach? What if we learned to despise foreign photos, and instead, preferred photos shot in more common, ordinary places; like in our own neighborhood or hometown? 

Perhaps it takes more skill to make strong photos in an ordinary environment? 

Perhaps this should be our focus:

Strive to make the strongest photos in our own neighborhood; strive to make the strongest photos from our own “ordinary” everyday life. 

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What is the romantic notion of a “successful” photographer?

There is this notion of the “romantic” photographer:

1. Kind of like Henri Cartier-Bresson: Travels the world, shoots with a Leica
2. Is famous, and makes a ton of money from their photography. 
3. Has solo exhibitions of their work, and published books 

This is an ideal most photographers strive towards.

Destroy the old ideals of photography 

But what if we created a new ideal? In which, 

1. Shoots with a phone, or a simple compact camera (RICOH GR II) 
2. Relatively unknown, but their work is well-regarded in a very small circle of photographers 
3. Anti-exhibitions: Instead, prefers to share their photos online via their own website or blog. 
4. Doesn’t care for “art work legitimacy”. In fact, deep suspicion if they gain popular success. 

We modern photographers

We are currently in a brave new world of photography; insanely innovative new technologies in photography, new tools and new ways of publishing our work.

We must destroy the past old ideals of photography and create our own brand new ideals for our photography.

Be anti; create your own ideals for yourself! 

ERIC