What sort of photographer am I?

In conversation photographers often get asked what sort of photographer they are…

Wedding photographer? Commercial photographer? Landscape photographer? All of the above?

For me its all of the above but I don’t see photography as a job title, but more so, I see my photography work as an extension of the way I live my life. One way I look at it is that every day in life starts as a blank piece of paper, ready to be written, like the pages of a book. What sort of book, how many pictures it has, and how good it reads is up to all of us as individuals to choose. Those choices for me are summed up perfectly by a clever bloke named Gilbert Chesterton…

The traveller sees what he sees… a tourist sees only what he has come to see. – G.K. Chesterton.

Some photographers operate as the tourist, seeing and capturing only what they came to see, what was pre-visualised and pre-planned, and what fits within the realm of the sort of photographer they are. That’s all fine, but for me as in life, and as a photographer I’m much more the traveller, also seeing and capturing what happens, as it happens, natural and unrehearsed, flash-free, filling blank pieces of paper with fresh experiences, fresh ideas, new perspectives, and often unexpected moments in time. This way of working is often referred to as documentary style photography.

So… that’s what sort of photographer I am.

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