Under The Bridge Episode 14: What Kind Of Photographer Are We?

Hello! I’m back with another episode, it’s been a while and I’m sorry about that. Had lots of family obligations in August, and when I wasn’t herding kids I was taking pictures like a fiend.

I’ve run through dozens of rolls of film this summer, shooting all kinds of different subject matter. The work is so varied, I don’t think any algorithm would be able to make sense of it all. And that’s ok with me! In this episode, I talk about the labels that we, other photographers, and social media platforms put on us. Am I a street photographer? A portrait photographer? Documentary photographer? Fashion photographer? A “visual storyteller” (oh FFS please, anything but that…..)

I don’t think about any of this while I’m taking pictures, but when we show our work to the outside world, they kind of want it packaged up nicely, consistently, they want to know what they’re looking at. And you need to decide if you’re going to give it to them that way, or not. I’ve always appreciated artists who stick their middle finger up to the establishment, to societal norms, and do their own thing. Doing things that way is never an easy path - but who wants it easy, anyway?

So this…..is about that. And I had to edit this one a bit because the trains passing over the bridge were hella loud and frequent. Figures the MTA would pick the exact 15 minutes this week I was recording to make the subway trains come fast and frequent. Anyway….thanks for listening and if you have any questions, comments or thoughts, please share them!

Jim

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