One subject, one shoot
Know what you’re looking for
Youngjun Koo p. 96
Saturday night. Cardiff town centre. But this isn’t an image of a man having ‘fun’. It’s an image of a man totally spellbound. Of someone far removed from their everyday self. As he attempts to climb over the railings he takes on the appearance of a gorilla escaping from a zoo. Who knows what carnage is about to be wreaked on the world!
Rather than going out with the intention of shooting everything and anything, Maciej Dakowicz shot this picture knowing exactly what he was looking for – inebriated Welsh clubbers out on the town.
Focusing your attention on a particular subject matter gives you more purpose and better results when shooting.
It can be as simple as saying, ‘today I’m going to look for candid street portraits’. Doing this hones your eye and you’ll find that you capture moments that you would otherwise have missed or not even have noticed.
By going out week on week with a particular purpose, Dakowicz saw past streets paved with discarded fast-food containers and unconscious teenagers and uncovered a world of vulnerability and aggression, of humour and horror.