Creative Sunday Practice #14

Are you sitting right now? Perfect. That means you’re already halfway into this week’s Creative Sunday Practice.

This Sunday, I invite you to explore chairs with your smartphone camera.

We sit on them every day and almost never really see them. But once you stop treating them as furniture and start treating them as subjects, they become surprisingly rich material for practice.

Scratches, bent legs, faded fabric, loose screws — all these details we normally overlook are often the most interesting parts to photograph.

How to Approach Your Chair Photography Practice

Try these creative directions to get started:

🪑 Choose one chair and commit to it. Focus on a single object to explore it fully.

🪑 Photograph what makes it yours. Capture wear, quirks, damage — the character of the chair.

🪑 Shift perspective until it feels unfamiliar. Low angles, high angles, or sideways shots can transform its presence.

🪑 Place it where it doesn’t “belong.” Moving a chair to a new spot instantly changes the story.

🪑 Use textures and backgrounds. Fabric, walls, or floor textures can help separate shape from function and add visual interest.

When I practiced this at home with my iPhone camera, I was surprised by how quickly the chair stopped looking like “furniture” and started looking sculptural. Small changes in angle completely changed the mood of the image.

Set aside 10 minutes. No concept, no goal. Just observe, snap, adjust, repeat. That’s where the learning happens.

I’ll be back next Sunday with another simple prompt to keep your creative eye active.

P.S. If this is your first time seeing one of these posts, Creative Sunday Practice is a weekly ritual designed to help you train your creative eye and improve smartphone photography using everyday objects at home. Tap the hashtag in the post to explore previous prompts.