Opportunities, forever presenting themselves in seemingly indecipherable code, each a nebulous step to new a horizons. Crucially, it's knowing when to say yes and to not allow their dissipation.
Having dedicated myself to street photography, and photography more generally, I find myself at a crossroads. I have shot full frame for seven years, a personal marker that things went electric. Today I find myself with a burgeoning commercial career as a product photographer. Paradoxically, finding time to shoot street is increasingly a challenge.
Reviewing my archives seemed logical first step. Yet while I pause, I can’t help wander what might have been from this or that; where instead I may have ended up if I said yes to any number of opportunities.
There are several moments I can isolate — with the sharp acuity of hindsight — that could have proved pivotal. The potential to go deeper. Specialising in a single discipline can rest on the snowballing effects of saying yes to certain crowds more frequently. Consistency and with a little time, you can be a known artist of the field.
I entered the game late, entertaining a different career and lifestyle before jumping ship. Consequently, deciding to focus my work to just one discipline — say solely street, art nude, fashion or even product — seemed to speak of limitations or constraint, structures from which I decidedly wanted to migrate.
Yet it's all too easy to look back with what ifs. Ultimately, I have the career I have due to the portfolio I built, which itself was driven by my personality. I am the architect and demolition crew of my fate — this crossroads is mine to own. Hyper-curious, in no rush for obvious success, and certain I can achieve excellence in any arena I desired, I shot the shoots I wanted.
I am scattershot in phases. I am now stepping out of a two year cycle of dedicating myself to art nude photography, achieving multiple publication. And yet, I have maintained an overlapping process of shooting street. I did so for art nude while I built my fashion portfolio; all the while curating my website and pushing my skills to the next level.
The next iteration is street photography. It is the only iteration, my first true love. My inner voice is increasingly shouting for me to pound the streets more that once or twice a month. My inner voice is shouting for me to shoot as near daily as is possible within a busy, real life.
A successful, or contentious man — depending on your leanings — once said that we overestimate what we can achieve in a year, and underestimate what we can build in ten.
The grain of truth I am forced to accept is the need for patience to play the long-game.