So I usually reserve this blog for short bursts of inspiration, irreverent postings, and off-topic ramblings, but I think today I’d like to talk a little about consistency in photography. It’s something I’ve been thinking about, since I’m in the middle of a pretty big update to my website, and so I’m looking through my photographs, trying to tie things together and pace things properly and just generally create a mood and vibe that is steady across the entire portfolio. Thus I’ve come to this idea of consistency. Though hopefully not a foolish one.
I didn’t grow up in the heyday of photography, if there ever was one. The only way that I’ve ever known to be a photographer is by fighting, sometimes tooth and nail, to make a name for myself. And in time this has led to some great jobs with great clients under several different disciplines. I’ve shot for six-star resorts on small islands off the coast of Southeast Asia, I’ve traveled through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, India, and China on magazine and newspaper assignments, I’ve done fashion shoots with designers from the UK and France, and I’ve worked on ad campaigns for some very big name clients across Vietnam. All in addition to the documentary and portraiture work I do on my own time.
The most difficult thing is having my style of photography come across these different disciplines while keeping my clients happy. I want people to see my fashion work and my travel work and my ad work and know that they’ve all been shot by the same photographer. I want that slight edge to show in my lifestyle photos, I want to keep some of my ad shoots a bit gritty and exotic, and I want my fashion photographs to have an air of mystery to them and to invoke that same sense of discovery that you should see in great travel images. I want everything to tie back together, even if the thread is sometimes a bit more difficult to find. I guess I want to show consistency in variety. If that makes sense.
Anyway, the photographs in this post don’t follow any kind of storyline. They’re from across Asia, from different projects and assignments, and they’re just images that I’ve been sifting through recently. If you have a spare minute, you can see my updated website here: Aaron Joel Santos Photography.
from swerve of shore 