Puzzling it out

The sun slowly disappears behind the houses opposite while I take the dog round the block once more. Guus pulls at the lead. I think I should have taken him out a little earlier.

On 30 Minuten Sluitertijd we recently talked about personal branding and more fashionable things of that kind. What defines you, and what defines your photography?

A few years ago I chose to throw myself fully into street photography. That seemed logical and still fits, to a large extent, with what makes me happy. But I am really no longer only a street photographer.

Guus runs at a quietly hopping jackdaw and starts barking. If I were only a street photographer, my marketing and personal branding would be simple.

Your friendly neighbourhood street photographer, I sometimes joke, loosely after Spider-Man. Atmospheric black and white images alternating with punchy colour photos, rather like my Instagram profile.

Thanks to purists and those dreadful Facebook groups, street photography has turned into a corner of photography where boxes are more present than ever, and you have to fit into one, because otherwise you do not count. I gather it is no different in landscape photography. Or is it nature photography?

I do not want to be put in a box. And if I have to be in one, I would rather build it myself. I want to build it so that I get the right visitors, because I do not need everyone in that box. I do not make work for everyone. And perhaps that is the crux: what is your end goal?

But what is the end goal, then?

My end goal is making fine street photographs that people look at a little longer. Images that are a rendering of the “now”, that show a picture of a time, the way the photographs of Robert Frank and Eugene Atget once did. Honestly? A bin edited out does not interest me in the slightest. But I have never actually removed one.

My end goal is also making portraits, business or otherwise, in which I hope to put people in front of the camera relaxed. If I have more than seven minutes for a photo, I hope to get deeper as well, to a fear, an insecurity, a shyness or indeed a pride in someone. Past the outside. Michiel the street photographer often only sees that outside. The portrait photographer does not.

In fact I have just come from a conversation about renting a space for coffee and portraits. Off the street, out of my house. A place where I can drink coffee with someone for three quarters of an hour and then photograph for a quarter.

The person, then the photo. Not necessarily models, but people who do not yet know they are wonderful models. People who have a story to tell, and I make an image of it, with it or about it. That is what I want.

Not only a street photographer

I am not only a street photographer, but I need the box for my marketing and my story. The unforced and unposed meets the posed portrait in a hastily arranged studio. It must not be a hastily arranged studio. There has to be creativity in the air, untold stories and silence, a great deal of silence.

Whether you are a passionate hobbyist or a driven professional, something drives you to make your photos. And let us be honest: you do not make them to leave them unseen on a hard drive. We are all looking for a stage.

We all like getting positive feedback on something we are proud of. That stage may be called Instagram, or an exhibition. Perhaps your stage is called a magazine or a book. And then it is handy if you fit in a box.

Boxes are easier to sell

If you fit in a box, you can connect with your audience faster. You get responses on social media faster, from people in the same box. And you sell work faster to the people who love your box. In marketing that is called a niche. Do you recognise wanting to belong to more boxes than one? I have that very badly.

And that is where my puzzling comes from. This coming weekend I am not walking with Guus but combing the streets with a group of workshop participants, looking for interesting people, a fine composition and the very best light.

While I walk about there, my eye falls on a woman or a man I would like to photograph with more attention, someone I could make a fine portrait of. What light would I use, and what kind of reflector? Oh, wait, I am giving a street photography workshop.

I read the book Juggling Elephants by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, about the different rings you encounter in life. Private, work and self care. It is up to you to decide which elephants you allow into your rings, elephants being a metaphor for priorities.

In my “work” ring two elephants are circling each other. It is very busy in that ring. Street photography and portraits. Portraits and street photography.

Almost home

We are almost home. Guus sees that Esther’s car is already there and breaks into a sprint. Lost in thought, I almost let go of the lead.

I think most photographers have this puzzling. Whether it is about which kind of photography fits into your free time, or the direction you want to grow in as a professional. It reassures me that I am surely not the only one; that simply cannot be.

I unclip Guus’s lead. Relaxed. With a little more air in my head I put the coffee on. I pick up the Portretbijbel and see that it is lying on top of the Straatfotobijbel by accident. What am I worrying about. Perhaps they simply do lie that close together.

This article first appeared on Photofacts.nl (the biggest photography platform in the Netherlands), for which I have written a monthly column since 2025.