Got told my mall photos were too clean and it changed how I shoot

Last month over at the Galleria in Memphis (which is basically a ghost town now), this older guy on the forum said my pictures looked like stock images. He said I needed to capture the peeling paint and busted floor tiles to tell the real story. Now I focus on the decay instead of trying to make it look pretty. Has anyone else had a critique that totally flipped your approach to documenting these places?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_murphy164d ago

Agree completely, sometimes the best advice hurts at first but ends up making your work better. You're basically being told to stop hiding the truth and just shoot what's actually there. Your style will probably end up way stronger for it in the long run.

leeknight4d ago

Doesn't that kinda force you to find beauty in the ugly stuff though? I started doing the same thing after someone said my abandoned building shots looked like they were trying too hard to be moody.