The “Timeless” Photography Obsession
If you’ve been doing street photography for a while, or even just photography in general, you’ve probably come across the term “timeless” being used to describe photos at some point in your journey.
If you haven’t, to put it simply, a “timeless” photo transcends any specific time or trend. It’s a photo that can be appreciated for many years to come because it is not influenced by current fashion or styles. It’ll always remain relevant and valuable, regardless of the time period.
There have been occasions where I’ve had people comment on certain works of mine, using the term “timeless” to describe them. Now let’s not get it twisted – it is one of my favorite compliments. Being told a work of yours is “timeless” is a great feeling, especially when it actually is. However, we shouldn’t forget the importance of documenting our present day.
“Timeless” Characteristics
It’s important to understand that receiving the “timeless” comment/compliment from someone can be somewhat subjective – what looks timeless to one may not exactly be the same for someone else. However, there are a few factors that can dictate whether or not a photograph truly has a timeless feel to it.
The first would be the subject matter. This could refer to how a specific person in your photo looks, or maybe it’s an old building, or a classic car. When the focus of your photo is a subject that doesn’t exactly give away the time period it was taken in, you could potentially say that it gives the photograph a timeless feel.
Another timeless characteristic could be the post-processing. A lot of the time, if the editing of a digital image even somewhat replicates the look of a film stock, that could add to the timeless nature of the photo (or obviously if it was just shot on film to begin with). Now this maybe isn’t as common or simple, and I don’t think editing alone can really push an image into the “timeless” conversation, but it’s definitely a strong characteristic.
Location can also influence the timeless aspect of a photograph. It gets increasingly more difficult to create timeless street photographs in most major cities around the world because of the modernization and “development” of the city in terms of architecture, technology, and the people who live there. Granted, I haven’t shot in a ton of major cities besides a few but I imagine that’s the case for a lot of western cities. However, if you go to a small town somewhere in rural USA, that area may not be as touched by modern technology/developments so your photographs will have more timeless features when it comes to the setting of the images.
On the topic of technology, how much modern technology is present in a photograph can impact its timelessness. If you take a photo of a person staring at their iPhone while listening to music on their Airpods and wearing new Nike Dunks, that photo wouldn’t exactly be considered timeless…at least, not right now.
Now here’s the all-important question: Does it even matter?
Not all photos need to be timeless
This part may be a bit hypocritical, but hear me out.
There have been so many instances where, whether it was out in the streets or on social media, I have heard/seen people say they won’t take certain photos because someone was on their phone.
“This would’ve been a good photo if the person wasn’t staring at their phone” or “everyone is always on their phone.”
I get it, I’ve avoided taking photos for this specific reason many times. And it’s a very valid thing. And everyone has different styles and things they’re drawn to. Again, valid.
However, if you stop to think about it from a broad perspective, photography is documentation. Photography depicts our present day and age, specifically street and documentary photography. Therefore, should we really think the excuse of not taking a photo because someone was on their phone is going to hold up for much longer? If you think that a person who is on their phone ruined a photo of yours, then maybe that photo was never really that great to begin with.
If everyone tried to take timeless photos, who would there be left to document our world today? How will people in 50-100 years know what our world looked like today? Obviously we have so many ways of documentation these days, but speaking purely from a photography perspective, I think it’s so important to photograph things that are specific to our time. Our favorite photographs from legendary photographers like Gruyaert, Haas, Leiter, and Maier are all so good because they depicted the essence of what was going on around them. They photographed what they experienced and saw, not what they thought others wanted to see.
Now I don’t mean you should just go start taking random photos of people on their phones or walking around with their Balenciaga bags. What I mean is, if you take a photo with great composition/lighting/colors, I think it’s okay if there’s a phone in the photo. What if Ernst Haas avoided taking certain photos because he wasn’t a fan of the then-modern taxis in New York? Someone in the future might look back at your photo of a person on their phone and be so intrigued as to how much smartphones were part of our lives. It’s the same way we look at people reading newspapers or wearing top-hats these days.
Photo by Ernst Haas
Why are new things boring?
Part of the reason people steer away from photographing “new” or current things is because these things are boring. Modern architecture and advancements can sometimes feel stale and lifeless, whereas things from the past have a sense of character and story. One of my favorite examples of very modern but incredibly boring creations is the Cybertruck. To put it simply, it looks like my refrigerator on 4 wheels. This is something I will probably never photograph unless something else happening in the frame is very interesting. And I’m sure a lot of people would agree.
Now I’m not saying that everything new is boring. There are some really incredible things in the world today that make our lives so much easier.
But a lot of things today feel very cookie-cutter. So many cars look the same, phones basically all have the same design, etc, and I think that’s part of the reason why things like Cybertrucks feel so outlandish. They don’t conform to what people expect cars to look like. BUT, is that more of a reason they need to be photographed more often? I’ll leave that up for you to ponder.
To me, if someone could take an element in a photo that’s not exactly photogenic, and turn it into a great photograph, I think it makes it that much better of a photo. Does that make sense? For example, let’s say you’re sitting in an airport waiting at your gate. It’s mid-day and the harsh light is shining through the large airport windows onto people sitting at the gate with you. You notice a crowd of about 25 people sitting nearby each other, all on their phones/laptops with the sun hitting them in a very pleasing way. Would you not take the photo if you saw it? It could be a missed opportunity to take a very impactful photograph just because you don’t like how many people have their eyes glued to their screens. I think these new things could potentially add to photos, but they have to be done in a tasteful and interesting way. I think that is the key to making mundane things visually enticing.
There’s a famous (or relatively famous) photo I’m thinking of that I came across some time ago. It was a high-angle/aerial shot taken on a long lens of hundreds of vintage cars in a lot, and I believe there was a person standing between them. I’m pretty sure it was a shot from before the 2000s, but I can’t remember who took it or what it looked liked exactly. My point is, even though those cars were probably modern to the people from that time, the photo was taken in a way that was very aesthetically pleasing. If the photographer didn’t take it because they didn’t want to photograph a modern subject, we would’ve never had the pleasure of being able to enjoy it years down the line. Who knows what parts of modern technology and life will be considered “aesthetic” in 40-50 years from now? We don’t.
At the same time, taking photos that can be considered timeless is fun and people seem to love them, myself included. Anytime I snap a photo that I think could look like it was shot a few decades ago, I get pretty excited. However, I’m going to start taking my own advice and not avoid photographing things from our current time. It’s definitely something that’s a bit hard to get away from but I think it’s very important and can ultimately make you a better photographer.
My point is, I don’t think we need to stop trying to create timeless photographs,
I just think we need to stop avoiding taking photographs of our current time.
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