Shane Vincent – street-photographer

Hi Shane, thank you for dedicating some of your time to polkadot.it for these questions. Do you want to say something before this “demanding” chat?
No I don’t, let’s start!

So, we could start from the beginning? When did you exactly say “Oh boy! I want to be a photographer..” ?
Photography hasn’t been such a clear path to me so i could say ‘ah, this is what I’m going to do in the future’. When I have free time, I try to stay productive and explore different ways of using creativity. This varied from music, to art, to graphics, to clothing design, to photography. However, in the last year especially, photography has stood out as my most successful creative journey, and so has become the focus of pretty much all my creative energy. I would say only very recently, has it come clear that photography is something I really want to pursue in the future. 

You are defined as a street-photographer, what inspires you while you are walking down streets or wherever? How do you decide when and what to photograph?
Street photography is the most exciting to me as you never know what you might come across. Cities and places are constantly changing, something you capture at a certain time will look very different in an hours time, or might not even be there one minute later. What am I inspired by? Hm, various things to be honest. usually something gritty and raw, or specific natural lighting that lasts a short amount of time, forms with contrasting colour to its surroundings etc. I’m not the type of photographer that shoots hundreds of photos and uses one or two of them, I shoot very little, each photo is THE photo. If I get a strong feeling that what I’m looking at will make a good image, I’ll compose the photo and shoot, if not, I won’t take the picture, I don’t spend long making a decision. 

Some months ago you were interviewed by a prestigious English magazine, always looking for emerging scenes and talents, in your opinion, what makes you stand out?
Thank you for the props on Dazed and Confused. What makes me stand out? Well, to be honest I wouldn’t know, I never studied photography and my knowledge for existing photographers is limited. Although, there are a few photographers who’s work inspires me and I like to keep track of how their developing. Besides that, maybe because I try not to photograph like a tourist, striving to produce an image that not the same as what everybody else is shooting, in terms of composition and subject. 

In these last few years, taking photos (generally using a big and expensive reflex!) is the habit of a lot of guys, what do you think about that?
Yeah photography is huge, most people do it. Its cool, everyone has their own goal for what they want to achieve from their camera, it could be to store memories, it could be to capture how they feel, everyone is different. However, lots of people do have extremely expensive cameras and assume it will produce great photos for them…thats not the case. I started at the bottom, began using a borrowed 35mm camera and a tiny, cheap digital camera. From here, I borrowed an SLR camera and eventually got my own. If you know how to use your camera and have an eye for the image, that will overpower anybody using an overly expensive camera without those qualities. 

What are you working on? 
Currently, I’m working on a few things. One is a project recommended by a photographer who’s work I admire, which will help turn my photography into more of a story and theme, rather than a collection of random imagery. Besides this, I’m working on some projects I said I would do for friends, one who does music in Chicago and one who’s trying to start up a clothing brand in London. 

I wish you all the best!
Thanks a lot, I appreciate the support!