We are interested in many subjects. But over the years have solidified three main creative outputs which we would like to continue doing until we ship off this mortal coil. They are:
1) DIRECTING DOCUMENTARIES
2) TRAVELING THE WORLD AS AN INTERNATIONAL STREET PHOTOGRAPHER
3) WRITING AND NARRATING ESSAYS RELATED TO SELF-DEVELOPMENT
It has LONG been on the “to do list” to create more with our form of documentary photography - street photography. Specifically, to use the thousands of back photographs we’ve taken over the last 20 years to help provide visuals for more short form video documentary work related to the subject. Being interested in the vary obscure subject of esotericism, we also just really need one of our outputs to have a more mainstream appeal that we can still weave some esoteric themes into and photography just so happens to be the #1 most popular hobby in the world.
About a decade ago we secured the URL www.philosophicalphotography.com which has forwarded to nilesheckman.com/photography ever since. The reason for that name was that when we take a photograph of someone or something candidly, we will also provide a somewhat funny and/or philosophical caption along with each photo. Which is what you’ll see if you scroll through our work at the feed at https://www.nilesheckman.com/photographyfeed.
Over a year ago we also secured the same name for a YouTube channel and because we’re not doing the podcast conversations anymore have now been finding the time to create some video pieces there which can be found at - https://www.youtube.com/@philosophicalphotography/videos
YouTube is the largest video platform in the world and the second largest search engine in the world. Being under big brother Google does have its negatives, and we are constantly on the hunt for new video platforms that are not regressive hell scapes, but generally works very well and we do use it most days we are home and in our office. Since it’s good to upload to platforms you actually consume, we have deemed YouTube as a good single platform to showcase all of those three outputs. The platform also works best to have a channel based around one particular subject. For years we were uploading a mix of all of our three outputs to our main channel but we started getting trapped in the algorithm. So in recent months we have now broken each out into their own separate channel. Which seems a bit like overkill but we barely use any other social media.
With our usual approach of quality over quantity, the idea is to make each video on the street photography related exclusive channel a mini film in itself. Covering topics such as sharing our life experiences and techniques learned through our international street photography travels as well as share through a documentary lens the work of other street photographers and photojournalists.