∴Serious Play∴
and the good it does for your photos
Sometimes I get a little carried away with seriousness. It happens when I’m at work, it happens when I’m with my friends and pivot mid-movie-conversation to “But how are you really doing?” When I told my wife’s folks that I was planning to propose and I asked for their blessing, I awkwardly interjected their happy affirmations, just so they knew, with the charming declaration that “I’m a serious person.” I kid you not.
I take photography seriously too. Which is reasonable considering photography is my work and the basis for many of the relationships in my life. But I lose sight of one aspect of it sometimes, and I want to encourage you to pay it a little attention today:
Sometimes the best thing for your photography is play.
Of course it’s unlikely that you’ll see the above statement on r/unpopularopinion. It is a statement though, that could use a little buttressing. First off, let’s discuss play1.
As I see it, there are two main ways to be playful with photography:
Make an image that is unusual for you.
Make something unusual with an image.
Make an image that is unusual for you
By breaking the conventions of your usual subject, style or intention you can make an image that is different from what you usually make. Dip a toe in a different genre, a different location, a different camera, and you’ll probably find it a little difficult to make the same kind of picture that you’ve always made before.
And this is great.
When you introduce a foil to your habits you’re forced to navigate it. This can lead to some creative problem-solving that results in an expanded approach to how you make images.
Here’s what I mean, visually:
Last year I drove the length of South Africa’s southern coast with my wife and her family. As per usual I slung a digital camera for the trip and pocketed a 35mm point-and-shoot in case. This time though, I packed an instant camera as well. I started out shooting a lot of what I typically would: street photos, holiday photos, friends and family.
But somewhere along the way I found that while the digital and film cameras suited the habitual images I was making, it was an entirely different kind of image that worked with the instant format. At first I felt sort of guilty about shooting these photos. I’d intended to document the trip for posterity, and here I was with pictures that told very little of that trip’s story.
But I sort of caved to liking them and just kept at it. When I look at them now I remember precisely where I was when they were made, and I have a wholly different (and in some cases more powerful) connection to them. They’re some of my favorite pictures from the trip.
These little squares felt playful in a way that the other images didn’t, because they were free from any expectations of how they were supposed to look.
Make something unusual with an image
It’s easy to see the natural final form of a photo being the processed digital image. Most of the time it is. There’s good reason though to bring a playful mindset to images after they’ve been shot.
Most of my commercial work is in fashion. So I was a little surprised when I was asked by a roastery to make ‘conceptual coffee photos’ for their new flavor. This is one of the images I made for them:
To make it I poured coffee into a soju cup that my talented friend had made. I shot a photo of the cup on a white floor, then printed it. I placed one sheet of paper at an angle over half of the printed image, then liberally sprinkled the print with ground coffee. I removed the top sheet of paper, then lightly sprinkled the entire print. I photographed that, and the above is the result. It was the first time I’d ever made an image like this.
My normal approach is for the photo to be the photo. That’s usually what fashion-work demands. But by taking on a new client with an unfamiliar brief, and when none of my in-photo ideas seemed to cut it, I was more or less cornered into being playful. And, when after finishing a fashion shoot I was standing in the studio’s afternoon sunlight drizzling Arabica on a print of a cup and coffee, it really did feel like play.
*THE DANGERS OF PLAY
Playing around with photos may result in you having a bunch of incongruous photos that you like but that don’t relate to each other. It can be a little confusing for your audience if each new image you share feels like a radical departure from the previous one.
I dealt with this by putting those images in an online sketchbook until I felt ready to share them in other places. Contextualizing it that way makes the diversity of imagery a characteristic of what it is you’re up to, and not a confusion. It’s something worth thinking about~
Q: Why are you telling all me this?
I’m writing about taking time to be playful with photography because it’s done some good things for me and maybe it can for you too.
It’s a creative push
Taking the time to play let’s you make images that aren’t constrained by what you think they’re supposed to be. Characterizing these images as play also lets you bypass the feeling that you need to produce a consistent style of image. Finding your style and your voice is important, but there’s nothing wrong with experimenting on something new.
It helps find avenues for later ‘serious’ work
Playing with your photos and your photo process is a great way to figure out the next direction to take. A lot of what you make probably won’t make the cut, but when you find a new style or subject that resonates, you’ll know it.2
It’s rewarding in and of itself
We play because it’s fun and that’s reason enough.3
Who knows where it will take you?
I want to end this with a story.
About a month ago I was skimming Korea’s anodyne version of Craigslist. It’s called Carrot. It’s normally a pretty tame place, although I did once find a bear’s head being sold for nearly $3000.4
Anyway, during my casual Sunday scroll I found an old box-TV for sale. It was super cheap and in the neighbourhood, and I figured I could do something with it (other than ask my friend to grind it to pieces).
I contacted the seller and agreed to meet her that night at an address nearby. When I arrived I saw two trashed TVs out front, and a middle-aged woman snuck up behind me and asked the Korean equivalent of “Is it you?”
“Uh, yes?”
She lead me down to the basement of a nearby villa and opened the door to a room painted wall-to-wall black. Other than us there were exactly two things in that creepy basement: my ‘new’ TV and a vase of flowers. It turned out she was an artist moving to a new studio, so she didn’t think it at all odd when 20 seconds later I was chin-down on the floor trying to photograph the bouquet.
I ended up in this weird black room with flowers and an artist and a box-TV because I indulged that part of me that wants to play. I’ve lived a lot of nights that I’ll never remember, but I think that was one I won’t soon forget.
Cheers,
Chris.
If I ever have kids I can see myself saying this to them very seriously.
For instance, I have hundreds of polaroids that I’ve never known what to do with. After I scanned the ones up top I got thinking about how I could make some folded, double-sided prints with the scans. When I do, you’ll see them here!
I can see myself saying this to my hypothetical kids if they turn out as serious as me.
Didn’t buy it.
Wise words. Luckily photography doesn't pay my bills, so I can play all I want 😉 Great post!
Thanks Chris - a good reminder to get out of the comfort zone to stretch ourselves!