When Photography Starts Feeling Performative

There was a point where I stopped taking photos because I liked them.

I started taking them because I knew other photographers would.

You see enough photography online and eventually you start recognising the patterns. Certain colours, certain compositions, certain moments that always get attention. And without realising it, you start shooting for that too.

I think that’s what happened to me.

I’d walk into a place and immediately think about how the photo would look instead of whether I actually cared about what I was photographing.

The strange part is that the photos weren’t bad.

Technically, they were probably better than before. Better edits, cleaner framing, more intentional compositions.

But they also felt emptier.

Looking back, a lot of those photos don’t really remind me of anything personal. They just remind me of what I thought photography was supposed to look like at the time.

That’s probably why I started appreciating slow shutter photography more. Not the technique itself, but the mindset behind it. Slowing down enough to notice whether a photo actually means something to me before taking it.

Now I try to pay attention to that feeling when I shoot.

If a photo only exists to impress other photographers, I usually lose interest in it pretty quickly.

A technically good photo can still feel emotionally distant.

And sometimes the most personal work is the kind that doesn’t need anyone else to understand it immediately.