INSPIRATION - IS IT A NECESSITY?
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
A photographer’s perspective on inspiration and if it’s really needed to create great art
I got asked about my inspiration.
I was recently asked to write an introductory blurb about myself on what inspires me to keep picking up my camera and take photos. Writing about myself has never really been my thing. I dither back and forth too much, unsure what someone would find interesting. It is a rather painful process for me, yet a necessary evil I guess I must conquer.
Why does “Because I love it!” not suffice? Why must I find some hidden deeper motivation and complex reasoning for my love of photography? In truth, one of the biggest contributing factors why I became a photographer is pure and simple that I just love it. No deeper soul searching, more elaborate explanation, or deeper philosophical reasoning needed. Ever since I picked up a camera in earnest, I rarely go anywhere without one in my hands.
I was presenting my portfolio to an agency art buyer and needed this inspired introductory paragraph, but it felt as if I was being asked to justify my love of photography. I know that is not why I was asked; I know that the question “what inspires you to take your photos” has a different purpose than what the question felt like it was asking.
While staring at a blank Word screen, vainly trying to figure out what to write, my mind, in one of inexplicable yet typical fashions, blurted out “Do you even need inspiration of create great photographic art?”
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
Inspiration: is it all that it is made out to be?
Inspiration is said to be one of the four pillars that photographers rely on to ply their craft. Together with creativity, vision, and personal style, these pillars are said to be fundamental and indispensable. Like a gourmet recipe, you need balanced portions of each, and if only one is missing then the whole thing turns out unpalatable.
Or so they say.
This got me thinking even more. Is this necessarily true? It should be possible to take breathtaking images without reliance on all four pillars. As photographers we build tools in our arsenal to achieve excellent captures with economies of scale and assured consistency. This is especially true for achieving our identifying look, aka style.
I can take great portraits of clients without “inspiration” being at work. Heck in theory I do not even need to use “creativity” at that moment either. Especially, if they hired me for my “style” of portraiture. Being able to dependably and consistently reproduce our style is the bread and butter of a portrait, wedding, real estate and so on photographer. We have spent countless hours developing and ensuring that our style is repeatable in order to achieve a consistent look in our work.
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
Maybe this argument does not apply to commissioned work?
Using the above argument, we can build the case that maybe inspiration is not necessary in the creation of images in certain circumstances. While I did say “commissioned work” in the header for this paragraph, I do not feel that all commissioned work falls into the category of work that does not require “inspiration”. But for those that fall under consistent repeatable format I believe it does apply.
Maybe fine art photography is where we can find support for where inspiration is instrumental? Or is vision the more important pillar and not inspiration? Let’s take a closer look at what “inspiration” and “vision” are to see if we can make more sense of this.
What is “inspiration”?
Inspiration is the process of being stimulated to do or feel something, especially something creative. The sudden feeling of enthusiasm photographers experience from someone or something, which gives them new and creative ideas. Such as a muse.
Let’s look at “vision”
A photographer’s foresight to visualize a concept that does not yet exist, and then feels compelled to bring to life. Many photographers excel at this, they constantly see photographs they want to create, and then work hard at constructing the imagined end result.
This in turn begs the question whether it is possible to have a vision without inspiration, and if so, the follow up question of whether inspiration really is so fundamental to photography as art.
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
How does Creativity fit into this?
A photographer’s ability to make innovative connections and free associations between things in new and ingenious ways, reinventing reality, and being able to do so repeatedly is their creative ability. There is something very personal about creativity, how a photographer sees and then captures things is intuitively shaped by their experiences, thus creativity is inherently personal.
Here comes Personal Style
What is more personal than style. Our photography style is the result of meshing of our technical abilities, our unique way of seeing things, into our visions that we, as photographers, then go and create. Style is the culmination of our creativity and vision, deeply influenced by our past and thus also undeniably personal.
Three of four are connected
So far, I think we can deduce that three of the four key elements photographers rely upon are deeply linked with each other. Style, creativity, and vision are intertwined with each other, so much so that I am going to venture that it would be hard to untangle and properly function without each other. At least for artistic works.
While I did make the earlier supposition that commissioned work might not always need all four columns, maybe not even all of these three interconnected ones, I feel I should note here that in order to create a repeatable and consistent style, a photographer needed creativity and vision at least at the beginning, in order to find their said style.
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
Can we be creative without inspiration?
I am still having a difficult time finding an appropriate argument that “inspiration” is fundamental and indispensable. To tell you the truth, my gut is telling me that it is, that it does play an important role, I just can’t seem to back it up with any proper reasoning.
The desire to be creative while not feeling inspired is common. For many it ends up leading nowhere, as without inspiration they do not feel motivated to go out and create. For a lot of professional photographers, this is similar to an author’s ‘writers block’. We, just like writers do, use routine and discipline to work our way through it the so called writers block (hopefully) and keep creating images using one of the other key pillars to lead the way.
Hold up! What was that about motivation?
If inspiration is the sudden burst of motivation inspired by someone or something, should I be looking at inspiration from a “what motivates me keep taking photos” point of view? Would this change its importance and how it relates to the other key elements? Will this give me the key arguments to back up the importance of being inspired?
Finding motivation to take photographs
Motivation is the reason for acting, and to continue such action. Our purpose for doing something. And having a purpose that drives us helps us express ourselves. Having a purpose can be fundamental in keeping our passion alive. The deeper your purpose, your motivation, the more creative your expression can become.
Maybe we are on to something here. Is inspiration our motivation and our motivation is our inspiration? Is this what defines what we perceive as our personal purpose to keep taking photos.
But what do we do when we are lacking inspiration/motivation? A famous quote from Pablo Picasso comes to mind here:
“Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.”
I guess just sitting around and waiting for inspiration to strike us is not how it works. We must be actively creating, working on our visions, and constantly refining our personal style in order to experience inspiration according to Picasso.
This thought was mirrored by Jack London, a renowned novelist, when saying:
“You can’t wait for inspiration; you have to go after it with a club.”
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
A catch 22 rears its ugly head
Kind of a catch 22 here, if you ask me. On one side we are taught that inspiration is fundamental to creating photographic art, yet at the same time we need to work hard for inspiration to manifest itself. Which in turn brings me back to my question of whether inspiration is really needed. If I need to be continuously creating, so that I can find inspiration, can I therefore not just keep creating even without inspiration. Is then work ethic more important than inspiration?
Is discipline, thus work ethic, a more solid pillar?
Let us hark back to the connection between inspiration and motivation for a moment. To stay motivated to keep taking photos requires inspiration. Discovering this inspiration, to keep your passion alive, ultimately will motivate you to elevate your craft, in this case photography, to new levels of creativity.
Enter the art of discipline
Discipline is the ability to control your behavior in a way that leads you to be more productive and/or have better work habits. As a photographer, you keep going out there and shooting, whether for clients or yourself, you set yourself goals, briefs, and visions to achieve. Regardless of motivation, inspiration, or even both together, we continue to ply our trade to the best of our ability.
The idea behind such professional discipline is to push ourselves through periods of ‘writer’s block’, and ultimately, as in the words of Picasso and London, to have inspiration, and thus motivation return to us, enabling us to relight the creative spark.
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
Still, how does ‘Inspiration’ fit into the equation?
Finding our motivation, though inspiration, fuels our passion, thus giving us an artistic purpose, which in turn drives us to express ourselves. This fuels what we do with deeper meaning and stronger expression. The resulting work deeply infused by our personal emotional state. Inspiration is part of what keeps the fire burning, it is an essential stepping stone to become motivated.
Photography: a visual language
There should be no argument here that photography is a visual language. It transcends spoken languages, conveys meaning and emotions even when there are language and cultural barriers. An important fact to remember about our images, that we photographers disperse out to the world, is that what others perceive in our images greatly depends on the decisions we made when taking these photographs.
As with all languages, it is important to choose the content of what we wish to communicate wisely, in order to achieve the best results. If we are not intentional then we will not be communicating much through our images. The more we impart our passion into these photographs, the more interest in them will be generated.
“A work of art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t art at all.”
Once said Paul Cézanne, a famed French artist at the end of the 19th century.
Each of us have unique perspectives of the world around us. Our personal experiences and characters allow us to impart distinct and singular perspectives into our photographs. A strong arsenal to hone into an equally strong message.
Intent, motivation, and inspiration seem to be intertwined here.
Yet…
Although, we are slowly creating supporting arguments that seem to infer the importance of inspiration in the artistic process, we are also creating as many points that, well, point against its place as one or the four pillars.
Or do we just have to capitulate to the idea that there could be more than four pillars to the creative process for a photographer?
Vision, creativity, personal style, inspiration/motivation, and how about discipline/work-ethic as a 5th pillar? And instead of categorically stating that all must be present, that a mix of 3 out of 5 is adequately sufficient, 4 of 5 ideal, and 5 of 5 blissful. Maybe even inspiration and motivation should be separate from each other.
Photo by Robert Schall Photography
Concluding thoughts
For me I think I will go with this new conclusion. While I think that inspiration definitely can have a great impact on our artistic work, I do not think it is necessarily an imperative requirement. I am also going to argue that while vision, creativity and personal style are essential pieces to the puzzle that allows us to create great works of art, I believe there is much more freedom for us on which ones to rely and which are indispensable.
Going over the discussion points leading up to this conclusion, I believe that discipline, aka work-ethic, needs to be added. There is undeniable support, throughout the history of art, that working diligently, even without inspiration, motivation, or even without one of the other pillars, will eventually lead us back to becoming inspired, finding motivation, reigniting our creative spark, generating visions.
We each have to find our own mix, our alchemist’s mixture, that enables us to be our most prolific as an artist. Stay inspired, be motivated, stay creative, filled with visions, true to your own style, and be a disciple of hard work discipline.
How do you power through dry spells?
Please share in the comments what your trick is to help you through a photographer's 'writer's block', would love to hear how others deal with it.
Be the best photographic artist you can be!
Originally posted by Full Frame Publication on Medium.com
