What is being humble? Is it being respectful towards people by putting aside all your ego? Is it being modest irrespective of the success you achieve? Is it just being soft-spoken and kind? Or being understanding and considerate of people?
In my words, humility is a bit difficult to define, to be honest. Being humble is knowing who you are and keeping that knowledge aside while standing your ground, knowing where you started and why. It is a virtue without which you may be massively successful but will hardly be remembered for who you were.
As a photographer, think of it this way: suppose you are on the streets taking photographs, and suddenly you face rude behavior from a person, or they ask you to delete their photos. Yes, as a street photographer, you face this on a regular basis, I know! But do you ever think, “Who the F**K is that person to ask me to do what they have asked? Do they know who I am or not?” No, right? This is what humbleness is—just gently smile and move on. This is what maturity is, and this is what being humble means to me.
Now you can ask me, “Okay, I can understand being humble is a noble thing, but how will it affect my photos?” So here are the reasons how humility can affect your photos.
Helps build a better relationship
Humility makes people comfortable. They will easily connect with you and will make your work environment smooth as butter. That means it will help you connect with people.
For example, let’s say you are a wedding photographer. You listen to your client, hear their ideas, and share your ideas while making adjustments according to the client’s needs. This creates trust and a bond with the family and the couple, and brings you long-term referrals.
Helps you learn and improve continuously
Humble people are always open to feedback and willing to learn from their past mistakes. Being an open-minded person helps you experiment and learn new techniques. In the back of their mind, their main goal is to make the client satisfied. With this mindset, they start learning. For them, every day is a new day. They learn regularly and apply it to their work, gather feedback, find the problems, and then work on those problems again.
Helps you capture the authenticity of moments
A humble person often tries to be invisible in the spaces they are working in. They do not try to dominate or influence the scene. They try to be there and document the whole thing. Maybe sometimes, if they are asked for help, they help people if needed.
This is very crucial in street photography and photojournalism, where natural and real moments matter.
Helps you develop your own unique style
Humility allows you to acknowledge the influence of someone’s photos without copying them directly. As a photographer, you need to study others’ photos. Learn from them, apply what you learn to your work, and yet carve out your own style and creative identity.
Helps you become an artist, not just a photographer
When you are humble, it will never ever be about you. If it were about you, you would go to different places and try to grab people’s attention by saying to them, “Look at my photos.”
But when you are humble, you try to shift the focus from you to them. Now you will be saying to them, “Look at their story,” because you have realized it’s about the art, it’s about the subjects in the picture, not about you as an individual. You are just a vehicle who has documented the whole thing.
If you’ve read till now, let me know what you think about being humble and what being humble means to you…
