Tone is in the fingers

No matter what instrument a guitar player with an identifiable style plays he/she will always sound like themselves. This doesn't stop wannabe guitarists finding out what equipment their hero uses and buying the very same stuff! They may nail the tone. They may have the technique. A lot of guitar players never get beyond emulation and fail to develop a style of their own. Individually or together having great tone and the chops isn't enough - something else has to be brought to the mix to make a style of one's own.

What has this to do with photography? It seems to me that the buying of the same equipment as a photographic hero is carried out by many even though it is widely acknowledged that it's not the camera that makes photographs but the photographer. Photographers also mimic techniques, subjects and compositions that are the trade marks of the photographers they admire. Prowling the streets with a Leica no more makes you Henri-Cartier Bresson than playing a gold top Les Paul makes you Jimmy Page.

A photographer's style transcends the equipment they use. Having a recognisable style can be commercially successful as clients will know what they are getting in advance, but artistically it can be unfulfilling.  Some artists dabble with styles early in their career then settle into a mature style. Others are constantly exploring new media and ways of seeing and working. The early paintings of Lucien Freud are distinctly different to his mature works, but still recognisably Freuds. Yet David Hockney has changed his working practices, media, and scale throughout his life while also producing work that is recognisably his. Style is not superficial. It underpins everything.

How does this impact on my photography? Since realising I have a style, or possibly just things I repeat, I am always trying to make photographs that don't follow my usual parameters for image making. Yet no matter what I do I always see something that resonates with my previous efforts. I am undecided if the image below is good or bad. It certainly doesn't follow my usual compositional style, nor my available light practice, but there is a simplicity and lack of focal point that I see in many of my shots. I guess there's no real escape from a way of looking and seeing.

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