Why Creating Your Own Photographic Style Matters

Beyond making authors’ work recognizable, style is one of the most valuable assets any photographer can build. From a very personal standpoint, I think of style as a whole world which can be seen from a diverse range of perspectives. As a photography educator, it is beautiful to see how style starts to develop on my students. From the curatorial side of the game, it is extremely satisfying to see a photograph and say “that shot looks somewhat familiar, it reminds me of…” and yup, the name that I’m thinking of is sometimes the correct one. And from the shooting side of the scope, is a never-ending query.

Style is equally revered and feared by many new and not-so-new photographers. It is hard to build, and there is no exact recipe for achieving it either, but today I’ll be sharing some insightful thoughts about style that will hopefully make it easier for you.

Style isn’t Achieved in No Time

We live in times reigned and dominated by immediacy, therefore being patient about something is more difficult nowadays. You do have to keep this in mind because you won’t develop style in just a few days (nor even months). Building a consistent style takes years, and has more to do with the quality of the content we consume rather than showcasing our work.

This doesn’t apply to every photographer of course, but for many this will sound very familiar. One starts in photography by picking up a camera and discovering how it can register things and scenes that are in…