Which of these do you think you're gonna remember more by the end of this video, but why?

The last 30 years, I've been studying photography, not just the technical aspects of the craft, but more importantly, what makes a photo memorable.

I've come to the conclusion that photographers like Stephen Shaw, Mary Ellen Mark, Hugh Holland, are celebrated not just because of their technical skills, but because of something else fundamental that most of us, when we pick up a camera, completely overlook.

But once I started to see what they were seeing in their photos, it radically changed my photography, and this is what we're gonna be looking at today.

How's it, how's it?

I was talking to somebody in the Teepee tribe the other day about their hotel images, which reminded me of Stephen Shaw.

Now, Stephen Shaw's photos look ordinary.

Diner, the street, a motel room, gas station.

There's no dramatic lighting, there's no dramatic angles.

They are just the subject.

Now, I have to say, I have a bias here because I love Stephen Shaw's photography, but having said that, the lessons that I'm learning from looking at his photos can be applied to any type of photography.

So what is it about these pictures?

Why are they collected, studied, hung in museums?

Now, if you're not familiar with Stephen Shaw, he was like a major force in photography in the 1970s, bringing it into what I sort of feel is more of a modern era by photographing things in color and things that were just everyday objects in a very simple matter of fact way.

And that's the key.

There's no compositional gymnastics, there's no weird perspectives or color.

It is just what it is.

The big issue with a lot of this compositional stuff that I was learning when I was younger is this, if you aren't used to using it, it can change the way that viewers interpret your photograph.

So Shaw strips all of that away.

He doesn't try and grab our attention with a bizarre perspective.

He simply presents a photograph and says, listen to it, it has a story of its own.

I'm not going to interfere.

I think that's the beauty of his photographs.

And for a long time, I fell into that trap of trying to do cookie weird angles and what have you.

And to be honest, yes, I do like it.

But the other day I was at Duxford taking some photos and I thought, I'm going to try this.

So I photographed some fence in a very simple standard 50 mil, nothing fancy kind of way.

And I really liked those pictures.

And I've tried it again with other subjects.

And to be honest, I feel those pictures are more memorable when I look at my body of work because they are simple.

That's the beauty of this.

It is making a photograph simple, easy to get lost in.

But what happens when we take this idea of allowing the viewer to connect with the scene and apply it to people like Marianne Mark does?

So Marianne Mark was like one of the greatest photojournalist documentary photographers of her time.

But once again, because I was young and I didn't know any better when I first saw her work and it was this portrait of a young lady called Tiny who lived on the street, I didn't get it.

It's like, what's so special about this?

But it's only as I've gotten older that I understand what Mary is doing here.

She's allowing people, but just be themselves.

She's developing a sense of connection by building probably the most important thing that a portrait photographer, somebody else photograph people can build.

And that is trust.

It took me a long time to learn how to actually build trust when I was taking portraits of people.

And eventually I realized that it comes down to firstly being genuine, being yourself, being prepared.

So you're not fussing over the gear the whole time, but more importantly, shutting up, letting the other person speak, letting them be themselves.

And it's in those moments that Mary was so good at capturing where the veil drops and those people become themselves.

You can see this at work in my images.

Here's a photo from when I first got started in my studio about 15 years ago now.

And here's a portrait that I took just before I wrapped it up during the COVID thing.

Which of these is more authentic?

Which of these feels like it's the person?

Now at this point, we've been talking a lot about stillness, but what if you want some energy?

What if you want something like that, some dynamic getting in your face?

And we do actually want to make people feel something through using composition.

Well, that's where we're going to turn to Hugh Hodlett.

How much different do these pictures feel to the work of Stephen Shaw?

It's night and day.

These have a dynamic feel to them, not just because it's the wide angle lenses and the light, but because Hugh has that other ability that comes with connection, that is to be part of something.

I mentioned that I didn't really get Stephen Shaw or Mary and Mark's work when I first saw it.

It's because I wasn't experienced enough.

But as soon as I saw Hugh's work, I was like, man, I get it completely.

He is part of this.

The photographs feel immediate.

We feel like we are part of the scene.

That's what I love about his work, right?

It makes me feel like it's the 1970s.

It shows me that he cares about something deeply, and he's connected to it.

I think this is one of the major problems I had as a young photographer, that I was too busy trying to think about the sort of photographer that I'm supposed to be.

So I would copy fashions and fads, and whatever was popular, I would go and photograph that.

How many people now are interested in street photography because they genuinely want to take street photographs, or they just do it because they see everybody else doing it?

It's that level of connection that Hugh's bringing to his photographs.

And I would encourage this with whatever genre that you photograph, find something that you care about, that you want to be involved in.

This is your approach.

Think about how you can make this feel real.

In Hugh's case, it's the wide angle lens, it's the perspectives, it's being close to people, it's the light, it's that sense of teenage freedom.

So here's my challenge to you.

What I'd like you to do is, over the next week or so, take a photograph that connects with one of these three aspects.

The matter-of-fact approach of Stephen Shaw, the ability to build trust, to let your subjects be themselves, like Marilyn Mark had, or to capture something you feel passionate about and communicate that passion through the image.

I put a link in the description box below to a picture folder, upload your images in there, and I'd love to see what you come up with.

So at the beginning of the video, I said which of these two images is most likely to stick with you.

For me, it's that Stephen Shaw one.

And I think you probably know why now.

Anyway, thanks for watching.

If you want to check out more of Hugh Holland's amazing skateboard photographs, here they are.

Thanks so much.

I'll see you again soon.