It's said that we're all artists, but to truly express ourselves, we must find our voice. Hold on to your hats, I'm getting semi-spiritual with this post. Ethereal? Maybe.
Our City.
My favorite part of teaching is helping students find their voice. Their style. People take up photography for a lot of reasons, to take pictures of their kids, to captures nature's beauty, or to highlight injustice occurring around them. My belief is that voice transcends subject and even style, it goes much deeper than that.
However, it's very easy to stifle this voice, to try and create images that you think other people will like, but not that you like. This comes up a lot as creatives try to earn a living with their art, they find themselves being hired or seeking out jobs doing anything and everything related to their art, but they might not be creating the things they want to, the things they enjoy and turn them on. This is usually fine, but in that situation, it's important to find some kind of outlet.
Alone in the woods, a creature's voice.
When you're first starting out, your voice might be quiet, it might not be strong. But as you practice and improve your art, it will become deafening. You will start making decisions, consciously at first, but then on pure instinct. These are the little choices that set you apart from everybody else, that you'll notice when you really take a deep look at your own work, and see how different it is. All of your experiences, your feelings, your beliefs, your past, these all come together and influence you, and it's important to not ignore any of these facets of yourself.