My Tell is a Tilt

I'm forever trying to understand what makes my favourites, my favourites? How do they all stand out in the sea of the sameness?

Why is it that I can identify Ustad Zakir Hussain’s tabla playing from hearing just one note?

How do I know my mom's cooking just from the smell?

When I see creativity that stops me in my flow and makes me go…wo, I always find myself asking, how did they do that? I’ve always wondered how people develop their creative identities, styles, voices, sounds?

A few years ago, I brought a book called PhotoWork to help me understand how photographers found their style. The booked interviewed 40 different photographers asking them all the same 10 questions.

Here’s Question 4/10: Do you have what you might call a "photographic style"?

Here are a few answers that I’ve paraphrased that sparked intrigue.

Todd Hido: It can, of course, take years to refine that style, but at its core, it is something that is unconscious and automatic”.

John Edmonds: Style is always evolving and changing, as it should.

Gregory Halpern: I have no idea how to answer this one. Sorry!

Curran Hattleberg: I say “Yes” to everything to see what happens.

Justine Kurland: Style is a tricky word. It's something you can be in or out of.

Dana Lixenberg: I guess so, even if I'm not consciously aware of it.

Gus Powell: It's “optimistic” and “optic–mystic”.

Alec Soth: If I do, it isn't intentional.

Rinko Kawauchi: Maybe I do. I'm not really sure. I'm in constant contemplation of how I can create and depict things in a way that is entirely unique to me.

Andrew Moore: My "style'“ has evolved over many years and is still a working progress. But I would say my best pictures have some of the following elements. (He goes onto provide a list )

Kristine Potter: Oh, I'm sure that I do, but I doubt I'm the right person to name it.

Dayanita Singh: I think my style is to continuously go outside photography; to actually go deeper into photography, you need to go far away from it, way outside it.

Richard Renaldi: I really don't know if I do or not. I have many different projects, and I have shot each one differently. So, if there is an overarching style, we'll have to wait until I'm finished photographing to find out what it might be.

Abelardo Morell: One can't help producing things that have a personal stamp-we all have individual preferences and psychologies. We like what we like, and ones art tends to reflect that. But I think it's important to stray from your regular well sometimes and try new ways of picturing things and find new subjects to challenge you.

Trying to answer this question is like trying to nail blancmange to a wall! It’s everything and nothing all at the same time.

Every so often, I'll look through my photographs and ask myself, what is my style, identity, voice?

I can see a few tells…

What Are You Looking For?