Make mistakes, it’s street photography

I just sent out my 200th interview last week. Having spent the last 4 years interviewing professional and amateur photographers, from Magnum, iN PUBLiC, APF and many more photography collectives. I have found a common thread that ties them all together.

Today, whether it’s vision or moment, light or serendipity, there are two things that they all had in common. They all had passion and they all made mistakes. They learn from their mistakes and the passion kept them going.

Mistakes are your sketchbook.

Like any other craft, photography can’t be mastered in a few days or months. Like any other profession there will always be good days and bad days. There will be days when you get home winners and there will also be days when you come home empty handed.

A bad day doesn’t mean you are a bad photographer.

Early in 1995 when I actively started shooting, I would keep a notebook to keep a record of mistakes I was making. The idea was not to be just self critical but also learn from those mistakes.

It’s good to spend some time with the photographs that didn’t work. The gut instincts that failed, the moments that you missed. Question them, What went wrong? Did you stand at the wrong place? Did you give up too soon? Did you not compose it well? Winners are great but lessons you learn from failures go along way.

We live in a world where millions of pictures are shared everyday. Your wins are as easily forgotten as your failures. No one has the time to remember your failures, so go ahead don’t be so hard on yourself. Makes mistakes, learn from them and keep shooting.