STREET PHOTOGRAPHY “FORCES” US TO GO OUTSIDE

“To go outside” in literal word: Travel to other places.

“To go outside” in non-literal word: Go get idea outside our mind. Be creative with new surrounding.

The point is, by travel to somewhere new can help us to push creativity in our mind with new opportunities. To capture something different than what we used to shot, and to learn how to adapt quickly in different situations.

Doing “travelling” to new places does not always means we go to somewhere far from our hometown. It could be as simple as going on different route to working place, or go to part of city that we never been before (or only been there occasionally).

Try to looking for the detail of that place, notice artistic things like:

• Dynamic geometry line
• (Vividly) colourful objects
• Reflective surface of wall or floor
• Shade that produce unique shadow
• Try to creatively capture (iconic) culture of a place into a “street photography”.

Street Travel: To open up new way of seeing the world. Both from visual and stories.

Some people asked me before: With the way I shoot street, what if I travel to another city or country, how to show to people that I shoot in these new places?

For me street photography is not always about documentary about where I am. We do not need to shoot at certain location to let people know we photograph in that place. For example: To shoot street in Singapore we do not need to shoot in Merlion (Mascot of Singapore) area. We can simply shoot anywhere in the city, and let people know we shoot in Singapore through other things: Faces of subjects, people’s outfit, buildings, advertising boards, and also through their culture.

Another example is when I recently shot in Sumbawa (West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia). The way I captured Sumbawa was not by showing glorious landscape photos (that they famous for), instead I focus on things that make Sumbawa People unique compare to other cities in Indonesia, which is: Horse culture, Traditional boat life, and salt pile.

So, the biggest benefit of shooting out there are to produce photos that unordinary for us (unique looks), to help shape our mind with new perspective and also will train us to adapt quicker in random situation to processing a scene (read: know where to stand and when to click shutter).

Street photography also teaches me how to see a city from different perspective. Before, I only think that Jakarta is a super crowded city with messy things inside. However, due to my street photography inspiration comes from Western countries (Mostly from England and USA), I start to learn to capture Jakarta in different way. I always try to capture a scene with elegant feel inside.

Elegant feel means pleasingly graceful and stylish in appearance. Therefore, for me to capture someone with peculiar dress or a place with unique light fall-off is way more interesting than “exploit” story about homeless person. In fact, for now I do not shoot any scenes that showing depression, poverty, or things like that (purely my preference choice).

Additional benefit, by doing street photography in other countries also make me “see” better about the real personality of that country compare if I just walk around to touristy places. I will let my mind to pay more attention about people’s behaviour, outfit, culture, building geometry, and of course, their golden hour time. (Golden hour in Melbourne City or New York City can last up to 3 times longer than here in Jakarta).

Photograph a new city have big chance will give us new inspiration and courage in street photography too. In my case, I always feel more creative to do street photography in Jakarta city every time I just came back from photographed other cities. I will try to apply lesson that I got from other places to see my hometown city in different way.

That is my thought about going outside our “comfort places” would give us benefit to produce photos with more unique looks and help us find more inspiration to capture a scene.

Don’t forget to keep shooting everyday!

Nico Harold