Lots of photographers urge you: if you want to improve your photography, you have to find your voice. This is probably good advice for some people, but it just doesn't work for some of us. I've been getting serious about my photography for over ten years now, and I know that I've gotten better, but I'm not closer to finding my voice.

Some articles talk about the importance of finding your voice, but don't actually define voice. It seems to mean something like "style", or "point of view"; the way your photos look, combined with what you're trying to say. But some of us don't have a consistent look to our photos; and some of us aren't really trying to say anything; we're just trying to make interesting photos.

The idea that a photographer should have a consistent style that a viewer can recognize, and say, "Oh, yes, that's by Jones", is strange to me. I'm not sure how I would develop a consistent style; more importantly, I'm not sure why. I mean, sure, if you've got a style, you can narrow in and concentrate on getting better at that; but that just leaves you not taking opportunities that may come to make other sorts of photos. And, yes, if you're a professional photographer, producing images that the customer can recognize as yours is good marketing. But I don't want to be a professional; I don't want to market myself; I just want to make good photos.

Likewise, although I can recognize good photos that are saying something, I don't agree that everything I do has to say something. The photo on this page, the apple blossoms, is one of my favorites I've done, but I don't know that it's saying anything other than "I like looking at this". Other people may take messages away from it, and I hope they're messages I would like, but it's not important to me that I shout out my own message.

It's like literature. An author may have a message when they write a story, but they may not; and many people will tell you not to worry about what the author thought they were saying when they wrote it, only what it means to you. There's a great line from Neil Gaiman's Sandman: "Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story.".

I say we should recognize that there are photographers who do not have a voice, and may never have one, and can still make good photos.