Some Thoughts on Style
Each photographer faces an endless number of choices concerning what to photograph, how to photograph, and in what form the image or group of images will be presented. Yet it is by the sum of specific aesthetic and technical choices that a visual signature is generated, one that defines the photographer’s work as being created by a specific individual. The consistencies in a photographer’s choices are both integral to the intention of the work and revealing of the inner life of the photographer. Even a photographer’s effort to strip away all trace of themselves and offer the image as if free of personal artifice—“the pure document”—cannot avoid evidence of their own information-rich choices.
“Style” is a word that has been used to indicate the unique way that photographers see and interpret the world as evidenced in their work. All of us display our style, whether intentionally or not. The word has contemporary connotations deeply rooted in consumer culture, yet its origin, from the word stylus, is found to be, “a characteristic manner of literary expression.” For the photographer “style” can be described as a characteristic manner of visual expression, and is determined by three main factors: perception, interpretation, and presentation.
Over time patterns of perception become apparent for the photographer as evidenced in the photographs that are made. Each of us is attracted to specific aspects of the world and each in particular ways. One person will notice the light falling around an individual while another will connect to the feeling hidden beneath that individual’s expression. Each of us has our own unique and compelling attraction to existence. In considering these patterns—where we direct our attention and how we interpret the scene—it’s as if we are trying to answer a question about the world, address some riddle that we carry inside, or unravel a mystery that is in the care of us alone. The question we carry is alive in that it remains unanswered and perhaps is itself unanswerable, a paradox without resolution. This aliveness and our efforts in seeking resolution compels our attention and action, becoming what we know to be our creative force.
A critical examination of patterns of perception and patterns of choice offers information about the nature of the active question. This information is a form of self awareness that allows the photographer greater agency and control over their photographic process. This awareness can be used to accentuate, clarify, and sharpen the intention of the photographic work, and it can be used as a basis for change. Ultimately an awareness of the determinative motivations connects one to their essential uniqueness. It’s in the unique personal way that each photographer perceives the world and the consequential response of making the photograph that becomes the artist’s visual style.
