Life Photography

"I don't want to be known as Joe Greer, the guy who only photographs streets. Or Joe Greer, the guy who only does portraits..."

Joe is one of those photographers that I've looked up to since 2014 and this video is really beneficial. He talks about how photography has so many aspects, and that one shouldn't trap themselves in just one genre. He calls it "Life photography", because he's always documenting. Maybe it's street photos, maybe it's portraits, maybe vacation photos, even photos for clients. It's all in the form of documenting. And we shouldn't shut off other genres of photography just because we are comfortable in one genre.

I guess that's why I stopped doing purely portraits. I originally did portraits because it felt challenging to me, it was something I had never done before. And when I finally got better at it, I stuck with it because it was what I was comfortable with. It was what my "followers wanted to see". But at some point, it was no longer what I wanted to do. Don't get me wrong though, I still have very crazy ideas and concepts that I want to try from time to time and I have a model who's always willing to help me aka Michelle. But portraits alone did not bring me the satisfaction I wanted. Yet for the longest time, I kept my feed strictly portraits only in order to have some form of aesthetically pleasing feed for people to look upon.

But this year has been a change. I ventured into some food and product photography while helping Chug Chug do up their Instagram. I did some travel photography and street photography while I was in Melbourne with my family. I did some portraits again, with Megan and Xue Ning. And most recently, I picked up my film cameras again (Nikon FM2 and the Kodak M35 - a reusable "disposable" camera).

The idea for using the Kodak M35 is because it's a snap and go camera, making it perfect for fleeting moments where I don't want to be fumbling around with the settings. It's also small and light, making it easy to carry around with me everywhere. I've always wanted to carry a camera with me everywhere I go, so this is the perfect camera. Even if it's a tad costly to shoot film. Ideally I would want to be able to carry my DSLR with me everywhere I go so I can take street shots anywhere, but it's just not practical given how heavy it is.

But ultimately, like what Joe said, I have always wanted to do what he calls "life photography". To just document different aspects of life through my eyes. I don't want to be restricted to merely one genre of photography. I want to enjoy photography as it was always meant to be. To capture all sorts of things that is deemed beautiful in my eyes. From people, to places, to the mundane things, anything at all.