Whether or not you realize it, a smile can be the keys to the richest bank vaults in photography. But what goes even further is holistically radiating positivity when you’re shooting. The feeling can be infectious to the heroes of your photographs — and for that to be so, it has to be genuine. This also means that it’s time for you to start believing in your own ideas and to stop looking for all validation from external sources. Reddit, Flickr, Instagram, and VSCO can give you a bit of feedback. Social media isn’t photography though — it’s content creation. But these days, much of it isn’t beyond a few emojis. Emojis don’t sweet talk us the way that words do.
This idea comes from “How I Make Photographs,” by Joel Meyerowitz, and he recounts a story where he was positive and radiated it. Folks tended to be more amicable to being photographed. “Being quick and happy and excited about what you’re doing tends to send out an aura of, ‘This person is ok,'” the book states. “… What is important is intuition, being positive, having a sensor of humor, and being in the right place at the right time.” It just makes sense — aren’t we all looking to tap into emotional goldmines? In fact, this goes not only for when you’re about to photograph someone but also about your work.
When talking to someone about your photographs, why not start by putting them in a place of seriousness — like a website. When you put your images on a website and load it up for someone, you’re taking away all the metrics that suck the humanity out of photography. Instead, it’s just all about the image in front of you. To that end, when you’re showing off the images on your website, the website should’ve been created to only showcase the very best.
Think about it, why are Polaroids so much more capable of bringing smiles than someone interacting with a screen?
This is how you’ll radiate positivity — by going directly to showcase something that you’re proud of instead of something that’s going to get likes. From there, you tell people about your work.
Of course, this requires you to believe in your own photography and work. And instead of receiving external validation, you should be able to explain to yourself why an image that you made is great. I’m not saying good — I mean great. When you talk about the image, you should also not say things like, “Yeah, I’m okay.”
Nope, radiate the positivity about your work from a place of real acceptance.
Positivity is huge. It’s one reason so many photographers compliment someone on something before taking their photographs.
To do this, you also need to add acclaim to your name. Being published in places, having meaningful awards and accolades attached to your name, etc., all means a lot. No photographer ever puts, “I was featured on this social media account,” on their website. Instead, they say things like, “My work has appeared in the NY Times.” That’s a whole other level of acclaim that can help you produce tangible results with recognition and building who you are.
Of course, that means that you, as the photographer, need to do more work on yourself to achieve that. So, truly, stop searching for it on social media.