Forget Everything You’ve Learned About Photography and Just Shoot

Barton Upon Humber New Years Day 2025

Barton winds whisper—
footsteps echo in soft pain,
spot colour lingers.

New Year’s frost shivers,
blurred shapes in the lens unfold—
a fleeting moment.

Ginko steps wander,
Daido’s shadow guiding—
raw truth in the frame.

I have been really bad at keeping this blog in 2024. I will try harder! I will ….. If you would like to see if I do, or how I develop all of this over the year there is a subscribe button at the end of this post, or you are welcome to subscribe to my F64 Newsletter if you haven’t already.

A Short Walk at Barton Upon Humber at Waters’ Edge

On New Years day Shona and I went over to Barton Upon Humber for a short walk. I like heading to that area because I always seem to meet other photographers, some I know and some I don’t! Today it was Ashley, someone I have not met before and who has a Facebook Page called agb-photography, full of great photography. Ash and I spoke for some time about photography and how he uses spot colour, which it seems might be coming back into fashion. I remember maybe ten years ago being asked by lots of portrait clients if they could have a portrait of their child with just part of the image in colour, for example a football or a rose, and the rest in black and white. Looking at Ash’s photographs from New Year’s day it looks like he walked a lot further than me, but I kept my walk short because I am struggling with a pain in my foot at the moment, which I am told by the doctors is ‘plantar fasciitis’! But it was good to go out, and it was good to revisit a style of photography that has interested me over the years, which I am refering to as the Daido Approach ……… which I explained on instagram as being:

Shoot instinctively. No looking trough the viewfinder or at the screen. Unconventional angles, blur, grain, and high contrast. Capture the mood, the raw emotion. Fleeting moments over technical perfection. Movement and abstraction. Searching for energy in everyday urban scenes. Point and Shoot. Who shoots like that? 

It is how Daido Moriyama shoots! He is quoted as saying: Forget Everything You’ve Learned About Photography and Just Shoot. I tried it on New Years day and found it liberating, although it did remind me of being a young press photographer and working outside courts in the 1980s when we would often just point and shoot and duck!

In 2025, I plan to use this Daido style technique more and develop my photography by following the ginko concept more deeply, blending it with personal reflection inspired by anthropology. I will photograph anything that catches my eye, without judging whether it is ‘worthy,’ and explore how my choices reveal my reactions to the world. If you have read posts and articles on this blog before you will know that the photo-haiku I have been teaching and doing was inspired by Daido Moriyama’s mentor, Shomei Tomatsu, and they both used photography to explore personal expression.

My interest in this way of working began when I discovered Shomei Tomatsu’s powerful images of post-war Japan, which showed layers of resilience and identity. Reading about his work led me to ginko walks and haiku, encouraging me to photograph with curiosity and openness. Moriyama, influenced by Tomatsu, developed a raw, high-contrast style that broke traditional rules. His instinctive, personal approach has further inspired my own practice.

Anthropology (and sociology and ethnography) interested me when I started my PhD studies into photography in 2019 as a way of changing the approach I had developed in photography over the previous 40 years and I think will  play a role in this project. Just as anthropologists study how people relate to their surroundings, I see photography as a way to explore my personal connection to the world. My images document not just what I see but how I feel in those moments.

The principles of ginko and haiku help me approach photography as a mindful practice. Both focus on noticing brief, beautiful moments—like shifting light or weathered textures. Haiku captures these in words, while my photographs aim to do so visually, reflecting my experiences in a personal narrative.

In 2025, I want to continue this approach as a personal study of how I respond to my environment. Inspired by Moriyama, I will focus on the unfiltered, the raw, and the often overlooked. This blend of anthropology and introspection will help me create images that feel personally meaningful yet relatable to others. The process is not just about making photographs but understanding why I am drawn to certain subjects and how they reflect my identity. Photography, for me, is both a way to document the world and explore my inner self, guided by the influence of Tomatsu, Moriyama, and the ginko tradition.

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