People like to think of photography as a product. You compose, snap, edit, print, frame and hang. When all of this is finished, you have created a thing, a piece of art, something tangible that you and others can enjoy for the rest of your lives. All art is viewed this way. Once the piece is produced, it is now an object, one to be admired, studied, pondered.
But to the artist, art is something different. It isn’t a process of producing products, of producing works, either singly or in series. Art is a journey, one with many twists and turns, ups and downs. Frankly, there are usually more downs than ups.
And that is a concept that I think we all need to think about, that we need to find value in, the fact that on our twisting journey, we will face more downs than ups. So we should because, in my opinion, the people who fail the least are those who are unwilling to step outside of the comfortable box they’ve created for themselves. They are unwilling to take risks and as such, they
struggle to become true visionaries. Failure is, or at least it should be, a source of inspiration.
And it isn’t your only source of inspiration. On your photographic journey, you’ll need to mix in as much variety as possible to keep those creative gears turning. Learn from your failures, seek variety, look for
unique ways to stimulate yourself in order to bring your creative vision to where it needs to be.
Now, I realize this all sounds very nebulous. That is why I’d like to give you some examples, some left turns you can make on your winding artistic journey...
