If you’re feeling directionless with your photography, exploring paths—literal roads, rivers, or trails—can offer the structure and creative freedom you’ve been missing. Many renowned photographers have anchored their work around these journeys, resulting in compelling narratives and unexpected discoveries.
Coming to you from Kyle McDougall, this insightful video explores four distinct photo books that each follow a defined path. McDougall starts with Paul Graham’s The Great North Road, a project anchored by the A1 road from London to Edinburgh, capturing varied scenes from busy cityscapes to isolated countryside. Graham doesn’t merely document a road; he immerses you in the human experiences found along the route. McDougall highlights how Graham transforms a simple journey into a thoughtful exploration of place, capturing images as diverse as businessmen in London, truck stops, and a lone hedge whipped by wind near Edinburgh. This use of a physical route provides a blueprint for your photography, allowing unexpected scenes to organically guide your creative choices.
Next, McDougall discusses Jem Southam’s The Red River, an intimate portrayal contrasting sharply with Graham’s extensive road trip. Southam captures the small-scale but incredibly varied landscapes surrounding a single river. McDougall appreciates Southam’s approach because it demonstrates vividly how much photographic depth exists within limited geography. The nuanced interaction between people and landscape unfolds naturally, offering valuable lessons in finding meaningful subjects in everyday surroundings. Southam’s work emphasizes the powerful insights gained from repeatedly exploring a familiar location, something you might undervalue in your own photography.
Furthering this exploration, McDougall moves to Alec Soth’s famous Sleeping by the Mississippi, a journey along America’s iconic river. While the river itself sets the project’s direction, Soth’s attention shifts between intimate portraits, personal interiors, and landscapes, tied together by motifs like crosses and beds. McDougall highlights the project’s flexibility—how it encourages varied storytelling through loosely connected, yet thematically cohesive imagery. The Mississippi project underscores how even iconic routes can lead to fresh narratives when you approach them with open-minded curiosity.
Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Thames Log offers another perspective, emphasizing our relationship with water. Mathews takes a less direct approach to geography, focusing instead on people’s interaction with the Thames—from ritualistic ceremonies to daily commuters. The book’s innovative design mirrors the continuous flow of a river, enhancing your understanding of how presentation can deeply influence a photographic narrative. McDougall emphasizes how Matthews’ project goes beyond the physical river, creating layers of meaning through the varied experiences it depicts.
McDougall doesn’t just examine these books; he puts the concept into practice himself, driving along the River Avon. The exercise transforms familiar, overlooked scenes into opportunities, inspiring fresh photographic insight through simple limitations. Check out the video above for the full rundown from McDougall.
