One of my favorite photographer/creator personalities, is Sean Tucker, who has almost single handedly help me build my black and white photography style, without ever meeting each other, or holding more than a few emails. Sean is a wealth of wisdom, emotional knowledge, and (I feel) the best photography philosopher I’ve come across.
Sean put a video out a few years ago (2020 I believe) called “Does Every Photograph have to Tell a Story”, and though there probably is a lot of irony to the fact that I’m writing about the story of Each photograph that’ll be displayed at a restaurant local to me in May, I do agree with Sean. There doesn’t Always Have to be a Story, it just so happens that 99% of the photography that I shoot lends well to one.
There are actually multiple stories I could tell of my time in Chicago, I could talk about how I went to Chicago to see a friend that I hadn’t seen in years (which I have done in previous blog posts), I could talk about how I brought my camera along because I wanted to get shots to put on my YouTube channel, or how as soon as I pulled my camera out to get those shots I realized I was missing the whole point of my trip to begin with.
Anyone that watches my YouTube channel can easily see that I’ve slowed WAY down in making videos since being in Chicago, due to having that very hard hitting realization that I got caught up in the wrong reasoning for doing something. I lost sight of why I enjoyed making those first couple photography videos, which was enjoying and sharing my photography experiences with others, on top of not trying to make a big production out of things either. In those first handful of videos, I enjoyed letting the photos do most of the story telling for me, while I just put in some filler info before or after the showcases.
You see, not all of your photos need to tell a story, but it’s also ok if they do. So for this Behind the Photo entry, I’m going to do two things, first I’m going to give a small overview of each photo with an even smaller info story to it, and second I’m going to ask you to really look over each photo and see if you can’t draw your own story conclusion, let your mind be the author of these images. Enjoy.
“Windy City Lookout / Midnight River Towers”
Both images shot on the same day, October 17th 2022, 12 hours apart from each other. One during the day “windy City Lookout”, and the other in the middle of the night “Midnight River Towers” (actually more like 11:30pm River Towers, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it).
Windy City Lookout was actually less than 10 shots into my day, and honestly I got it by sheer dumb luck. I had just changed over my lens when I stood up to see just the sliver of an old mans face, drawing my camera up and without changing any of the settings I snapped off this image (along with three more, but as soon as he saw me his facial expression changed and the moment was gone). There is much MUCH more to this story, but like I mentioned above I want to let you draw your own story, and also I do want to keep some stories for myself, my own little Behind the Photo moments.
Midnight River Towers was the second to last photo I took during the entirety of my trip to Chicago, a fitting end to a trip that will last a lifetime. Taken a half hour before midnight, on top of one of the bridges that span the Chicago river, and an image that gives a pretty good depiction of no matter the hour Chicago is always alive, even if you don’t physically see anyone.
If you’d like to read more about my trip to Chicago, check out my earlier blog post called “You Blew Me Away”, and if you’d like to watch the short video I made that showcases my photos from Chicago, you can find that here - https://youtu.be/ALLvXUaml_U
Not all of my photos tell stories, but I hope that everyone that does view my photography can take away something for themselves, story, emotion, or just a pleasant image to look upon.
As always, I hope you enjoy these posts and the photos I attach to them. If you’d like to continue this, or any other conversation, I’d love to talk with you and take inspiration for future writings. Feel free to email me at grimlockmedia@gmail.com
Catch y’all later.
Andrew Hoyle - Grimlock Media
