Thoughts on Style

Should you always remain true to your style? MEG member Eric Johnson shares some thoughts on the topic. 

Several times during a recent group show at Multiple Exposures Gallery, I received a particular comment on one of my images, a desert landscape that I shot in Joshua Tree

Valley Sunrise, Joshua Tree National Park   ©Eric Johnson

National Park.   Viewers who were familiar with my work from previous exhibitions commented that this photo didn’t look like my usual work.  People seemed to like it, but it was so different from the urban landscapes that I am so often attracted to, and also different from the content of the Square Meals show that I had at MEG earlier in the year, that several people felt compelled to comment on it.  I was a bit surprised by this (and pleasantly so), because when I look through my catalog in Lightroom I find plenty of different genres – landscapes, street shots, abstracts – but I have to admit that the work that I most frequently show in galleries and exhibitions does tend to come from a relatively narrow segment of the types of work I produce.

Every photographer should have a style – it is what makes our work distinctive, and it comes from our individual outlook on the world.  It reflects how we see, and it comes from within.

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Bob and Edith’s Diner, Arlington, VA ©Eric Johnson

However, there is some benefit to breaking out of your usual style once in a while and trying some new things.  I recently took classes in portrait photography and studio lighting.  These two areas may not have much direct relevance to the type of photography that I typically do, and I don’t really intend to make a major change in the direction of my photographic career, but I took the classes more as a means of expanding my awareness of other photographic methods and techniques, and to experiment with a different way of using light and seeing its impact on a subject.  I’m sure that these new techniques and approaches will find their way into my photographic style, even though I probably won’t change the subject matter that appeals to me.  But that’s my goal – to keep growing as a photographer while remaining true to my style, but to not get so stuck in one style that I can’t break out of it from time to time.