Nov 16, 2020
This week I'm talking with my good friend here in Sydney and gifted street photographer Douwe Dijkstra, who goes by “dex” for short, or on Instagram you'll find him on his profile “Monochrome Visions” all one word, or at his website monochrome visions.net.
Dex really is a master of lines, shapes, patterns, and generally just finding great compositions where most of us wouldn't.
and he photographs exclusively in black and white because as per his personal motto – colour is just a distraction…
Not only that, but virtually all of his photography over the past half a decade has been exclusively with his iPhone!
Now for me, and i expect many of you listening, as a landscape photographer with a DSLR, expensive lenses, and with post processing being a massive part of my image making process, what dex does might seem on the surface like the complete opposite of what we do.
But simply browsing Dex's instagram feed for a while is a valuable lesson in composition and finding subjects and points of interest, and this is something that transcends photographic genre.
Before we get started though… congratulations to two of my earlier guests on the podcast, Josh Snow from episode 13 and Isabella Tabacci from episode 9, who just won second and third places respectively in the International Landscape Photographer Of The Year competition. That's a massive, but well deserved achievement – so congrats again to Josh and Isabella.
Resources & Links
MonochromeVisions on Instagram – Follow Dex's Instagram profile here to browse his latest images and get in touch via DM
MonochromeVisions.net – Browse Dex's website for more information
Talking Points
- How Dex discovered his passion for photography
- Why Mobile is the perfect format for Dex as a photographer
- The value of capturing moments, versus technical precision
- How to ask people for permission to be subjects in street photography
- The links between graphic design and Dex's photography
- How colour can disguise a boring composition
- Creating the ultimate personal creative challenge
- Reaching the milestone of 5000 images posted to Instagram
- Where Dex draws inspiration from
- Limitations of mobile photography
- The importance of keeping photography separate from work
- Dex's tips for getting started with street photography