I am sure that many of you, like me, are staring into the abyss of a northern winter. The golden hues of autumn are fading fast, the skies dark and dank. Thoughts wander to sandy beaches and warm sunshine in far away places. Those thoughts are often molded by the virtual bombardment of adverts by the holiday giants. Indeed anyone reading from the UK, can probably recite the words to the Jet2 Holidays adverts verbatim.
For many of us though, those sun drenched climes may be a way off, yet our desire to capture beautiful images still burns within us. We might look at the dull weather, and perhaps the seemingly dull suburban environment that many of us might live in and think “no photography today.” But to do so is to miss a potential gold mine of photographic possibilities. Today we are going to look at capturing the magic in the mundane.
Familiarity Drains Creativity
I say seemingly dull because of familiarity. We spend pretty much everyday in our local environment. Very often we walk, drive or cycle through it with a distinct purpose, going to work, buying some food. Rarely do we look beyond that to its photographic possibilities. Our brains filter out much of the beauty and interest as we are focused on the task in hand.
However, try looking at it from a different angle. Imagine a visitor from a suburb of Tokyo coming to your town. They would be endlessly fascinated by the scenes in front of them. Inspired by the different alphabet, drawn to the contrasting architecture, in short they would be seeing your town through fresh eyes. Now, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot do that. However, you have to do it with purpose.
The way to start is with the camera you always have on you, your smartphone. It can be as simple as taking a walk around your local area. You might be heading to the shops, if so, leave 10 minutes earlier and walk a little slower. Look up and observe the scenes around you.
It might not be the genre you shoot most often, but photographic opportunities will appear. Documentary, street, architecture all are genres that you should see in abundance. Your local shopping mall might not be Notre Dame but it may well be an excellent representation of brutalist architecture. It may not be a perfect blue hour subject, but it could work well as a grainy black and white on a dull day. There may not be graceful curves and stained glass windows, but there will be interesting shapes, forms and textures.
That extra 10 minutes to your journey is the first step in seeing the magic in the mundane.
Seeing Differently
Photography is about observation. We love to travel, locally or further to shoot new and beautiful things. However, by training our eyes to see differently, we can open up the possibilities in what we would normally perceive as mundane.
We can do that by expanding extra 10 minutes into little photographic exercises. Each time we take a walk, we allow that extra 10 minutes and we incorporate a little photographic exercise into it. Again this can easily be done with a decent smartphone rather than a larger camera.
There are many exercises you can do, but here are a few suggestions.
- Look for symmetry. It’s all around us, from the last of the autumn leaves to the front entrance of that brutalist shopping mall
- Light and shade. Look at the way the light is interacting with subjects on your walk. Shadows are long and bold particularly in winter and can make great subjects for black and white photography.
- Colour contrasts. At any time of the year, colour contrasts can make for very appealing images. A classic example might be the bold bright colours of an advert or shop sign against the faded greys of concrete.
- Reflections. People reflected in windows, car lights in puddles, reflections are all around us.
All of the above and many more can be found on a simple 10 minute walk, pretty much anywhere in the world. All of them will train you to be more creative and to expand your photography to new genres.
Story Telling Through Photography
One aspect that we often miss in the familiarity of our home towns are the stories. Photographic stories can take many forms. It might be the gradual decay of an elegant but disused building. Conversely it might be a new office reaching for the sky and changing the local environment.
Many people are creatures of habit, they might take the same route at the same time every day, yet they will be wearing different clothes, perhaps interacting differently. They would be the perfect subject for a discrete street photography project.
Whilst we might want to take a picture perfect location in a far away place, the visual stories of our local towns and villages are made stronger by their imperfections. We often shy away from those imperfections, when in reality we should be embracing them. Our familiarity with our homes makes us the perfect people to document them sympathetically.
Gear Doesn’t Matter
The beauty of shooting the mundane in your local town is that gear doesn’t matter. You are not shooting to make poster sized prints for your house, you are shooting to tell stories and boost your own creativity.
A simple smartphone is more than enough for any local project. It has the advantages of being discrete and compact. It is also always with you.
However, if you prefer, you can always shoot with a larger camera. A DSLR or Mirrorless can be a talking point. The locals in your town may well be intrigued and interested by what you are shooting, especially if you are shooting frequently. This opens up the possibility of much more interactive photo shoots, again pushing you beyond your photographic norms.
Great photography is all around us. Our familiarity often blinds us to the photographic possibilities. If I were to produce one example of a photographer to inspire you, it would be Martin Parr
If you are not familiar with his work, Martin Parr was a British documentary photographer who was renowned for capturing the everyday trials of modern life. His work is well worth looking at.
So, don’t sideline your home town as a font of photographic inspiration, get out there, wander the streets with a smartphone and see just how infinitely interesting it can be.
