On the plane over to Italy, Justin watched- for the second time now- the Vivian Maier documentary (if you haven’t checked it out yet, you HAVE to.) And that has had him super inspired to push new boundaries, look for photos unfolding in real life right in front of us, to photograph people just as they are from the fly on the wall perspective, and to try his hand at street shooting (a la Maier and 1960s street photographer Garry Winogrand).

This kind of push forward is absolutely necessary for all of us if we are going to keep growing and stay inspired as photographers and artists. It’s required if we want to make sure we’re always learning and getting better all the time. To do that, none of us can be content to only look within our industry for inspiration…that only leads to getting stagnant and doing the same old staged shots over and over again. And I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t INSPIRE me. That definitely doesn’t set me on fire. If we want more authenticity, if we want images that feel real and make people feel something…then we should start by letting real life be what drives and inspires us.

Go rock it out & capture some REAL life today!
M:)

**All of these photos were shot black & white and square in camera on Justin’s Fuji x100s and carried in a Think Tank Urban Disguise.