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Style shoots, redux

Coach Taylor called it right on Friday Night Lights. Winning is a byproduct, not a goal.

The same goes for style. True style is something that emanates from who we are. It’s an outward reflection of an inner state. That’s true in the way we walk, talk, live, and breathe. Shooting is no exception. When you shoot for yourself – not the “I always wanted to take a shot like that” shot, but for yourself in the way that only you can see – the style comes out. You grow, evolve, get stronger and better. You shoot for style, and you don’t find yourself. You find what others tell you to see. That’s the treadmill. It’s infinity. Style is always … Read more...

By Spencer Lum Leave a Comment

Party this Friday!

Celebrating our new Brooklyn digs. If you’re interested in meeting the crazy man (me) who runs this site, send me a note, and I’ll give you an invite. Come on out, people!… Read more...

By Spencer Lum 5 Comments

The truth of it all

The setting: A vibrant, bustling energy permeates the hush-hush atmosphere of the room, a cafe, wood-lined and glass-adorned. Candles burning, dimly lit, the intersection of antiquity and modernity.

The Critic: I’m sorry – the piece – it’s just not working for me.

The Artist: Fine, I get that, but you’re not my target audience.

The Critic: So who is?

The Artist: Anyone who likes my work.… Read more...

By Spencer Lum 2 Comments

Style shoots must die

OK, I’m calling it, and I call bullshit.

Everyone else can call it whatever they want. But as we fawn over pre-civil war decor, tepees, tents, flowers, and the notion that if we just clicked our ruby red slippers and sucked down a little bit of fresh-squeezed lemonade on our sun-drenched porches, everything would be good again, I will continue to call bullshit. I’m calling this the post-authenticity movement. Because if the very reason that we went back to the simple things was to get back to the basics, then we have lost focus. We’re not getting back to the basics. We’re getting back to materialism fetishized as wagon wheels, straw hats, mason jar cups, and facial hair. A group … Read more...

By Spencer Lum 32 Comments

Does photography have a language?

It seems there’s this common notion that certain things are so clear and comprehensible that they are beyond language. That you should be able to look at a picture and understand. I don’t agree. No one reads a poem and says that understanding the language, culture, and time the poem was created isn’t valuable. Why would we assume that there isn’t more to a discipline that’s over a century old than meets the eye? Even if you can’t describe it through verbal language (not something I wholly agree with, but not wholly incorrect, either), that doesn’t mean there’s no language there.

There are those pictures that say just what they have to say in quick, digestible bites. A fleeting moment … Read more...

By Spencer Lum Leave a Comment

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