How to Become a Master Street Photographer

It seems that in life, a good goal is to strive to become a master photographer, a master street photographer.

How do you do this? Some thoughts:

First and foremost, it seems that the wise path is to first learn from the masters, then kill them. When you are a young photographer, consider that you’re in utero, in the womb. But at a certain point, you must cut the umbilical cord.

Also something that I personally discovered is that at the end of the day, all of these photographers, master photographers are insecure. Even the dirty secret that I have is that many of these Magnum photographers seem to be small petty, jealous individuals, who all seem to complain about how much money Martin Parr and Alex Soth makes. Because at the end of the day, prestige don’t pay your rent. This is why also it seems that a lot of these master photographers, Magnum photographers teach workshops be grudgingly; they don’t really want to teach, but they must in order to pay their rent and bills etc.

Self confidence is robust

Master also means maestro, teacher. I think honestly, what a lot of us are seeking is some sort of legitimacy in how we approach photography and what we do. Even myself when I remember starting off, I was quite uncertain about what I was doing, whether it was “right“, good, bad, etc.

I think when you’re starting off as a photographer, and you just want feedback. Do you want to see how you could improve, how you could grow, gaining constructive critique, etc. This was the genesis of arsbeta.com — my first attempt in creating some sort of double blind photography feedback platform in order for young photographers and new photographers to gain critical feedback on their photos which was honest, undiluted.

I think the biggest benefit that you can gain is self-confidence. Self-confidence meaning that you love your own photos, and also that you’re on the right path.

Longevity, having fun!

To me, the best way to define success as a photographer is longevity. If you’re still in the game, consider yourself blessed. Beyond fame.

Second, having fun! The real street photographer is like a big kid with a camera. Even my son Seneca, at the age of two years and four months, is a great photographer. And the funny thing is that it seems that he enjoys photographing more than reviewing photos. In fact, I don’t really think he understands the notion of reviewing photos yet. But he understands the shooting aspect.

What sucks the fun out of photography? I think social media. Uploading photos to Facebook and Instagram is almost like masturbation. I don’t really think masturbation is bad, but, it certainly depletes you of something.

The feedback loop of uploading photos to social media is this:

You look for a photo, a single photo what you think will maximize likes and comments.
You upload the photo
You then wait, a period of time, to see how many likes, comments, or comments you get on it.
You have two options; you either get a rush of dopamine and euphoria based on growth, or you actually feel a little bit sad and disappointed if that number is smaller than you anticipated.

Personal example, this is before I deleted my Instagram in 2017. Essentially I remember my goal a long time ago was getting 100 likes on a single photo. That then turned into 300 likes, 500 likes, 1000 likes, 5000 likes etc. I remember once that I uploaded a photo and got “only“ 1000 likes, and I felt disappointed because the other day I uploaded a photo which got over 4000 likes!

Then this is also the same thing with money and everything in between; just think yourself, who is happier? The guy who goes from earning $40,000 a year to $80,000 a year? Or the guy who earns $1 million a year, and then goes down to “only” $250,000 a year?

Building self confidence in yourself as a photographer

What I personally believe in is that their goal is to gain self-confidence as a photographer. Getting self-confidence in your approach, gaining self-confidence in the types of images of produce, and also gaining self-confidence in terms of your future.

Once again, I believe that the metrification of your photography is the greatest discourager of your photography. Don’t crowd source your self-esteem.

Assignments

Think and consider who your favorite photographers are, and actually think how you are actually superior to them.
Work your way backwards; that means, study the end of their life, and try to critically analyze how they lived and approached the end of their lives. For example, Henri Cartier Bresson gave up photography and said it was not a legitimate art form. He is not a good role model.
Create your own photo books, and share and publish and share them with the world!

How to make your own website?

Launch a website using WordPress and Amazon Web services light sail.

It literally only cost you $3.50 a month! If you want to register domain through Amazon Web services, it is only 1 to 2 dollars a month! This is a quadrillion times cheaper than buying real estate!

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