Personal Expression in Photography - Blog Series Article 3
There are a few perceived problems with introducing more personal expression into one’s work.
a) If it involves creativity, I may not feel I am very creative
b) I don’t know where to start
c) I have a fear of failure, creating rubbish work
d) What is it that is ‘personal’ that I should add to my work?
e) Who & where would I share this work with, what will people think?
All the above questions are present in everyone to a greater or lesser extent, you are not alone. There is a lovely quote, by an interesting author Ursula Le Guin. She once said “The creative adult is the child who survived”, which is interesting because many of us do not want our work to be compared to or considered to be that of a child. We often look at children’s’ work through adult eyes and comment on its naivety. This brings me on to what I consider one of the most important concepts in personal development in photography or art in general, that of gaining permission to do something.
If we have permission to break the rules, do something outside our normal work, to play, to experiment, be a child for 5 minutes… etc., then we create the mind space to do what? Be creative? Absolutely!
Assuming we have just a little bravery left in us, and you can keep this very quiet and to yourself, can we uncover this child-like mind, because its still there, we just have to release it. I used the word bravery because this step creates fear.
We have to overcome the fear. Fear is always triggered by trying to be creative, because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome, so we have to deal with it, it is real & tangible.
To start with I want to rename the ‘child-like creativity’, as this will be more comfortable for most of us. It’s about discovery and experimentation so let’s call it that. It is about getting permission, after all it was education that got us out of our child-like mindset. Parents and teachers gave us rules, and permission or otherwise to act in certain ways, to ‘grow-up’.
“But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano / act / paint / write a decent play? Yes . . . the same age you will be if you don’t.”
Let’s talk about a structured way to gain permission, and how we might work on discovery & experimentation. Let’s take back our freedom.
In a future set of articles, I will take you through an approach I have created to widen your knowledge, understanding & gain permissions in photography. It’s called Look, Read, Collect & Think, not very catchy I’m afraid, I’ll work on that.
Look – look at lots of photography, books, the web etc
Read – read about photography to elicit other’s views on work & understand it better
Collect – create collections, like Pinterest Boards of other’s inspirational work, use a photo forum such as Flickr or collect photo books, whatever works for you
Think – discuss photography with others, especially those that have differing views or specialisms of work from you
When we learn to draw as children we copy things, then, when we have developed the skills to create a certain image we branch out with our own versions, and apply these skills to new subjects. We can, and in my view should, do this in photography. Copying is good! … as part of a process.
So in simple terms Look at lots of varied work, gain inspiration, read about all sorts of photography to discover its approach & permissions, collect it, so you have reference points to review and consider, and finally think about and consider it by discussing pro’s & con’s and the value created by this work, with others.
Through this method you will discover new work, styles, approaches, understand their origins what values are seen in them (permissions) and start to think about what you like, why you like it, and develop the internal permissions to try it out for yourself.
As you discover and experiment you will begin to have ideas about where you might expand and grow and have the early creative thoughts to have a go at new things or express the things you already do with more personal input.
So, to answer the question - What is it that is ‘personal’ that I should add to my work? It is the creation of your own versions of the work you have discovered via Look, Read, Collect & Think that start to become yours, the types of work that inspire you, the decisions you make about subject, look, composition and presentation that become yours, be that related to the message, story, aesthetic approach, embodying your curiosity, empathy and or imagination.
Music can often give a visceral inner experience (happy, sad, involving, fortifying) these deeper feelings are also possible through visual communication means, and these come from the product of creating. Your evolving work will start to create some form of ‘experience’ for you personally and then the people you begin to share this work with. Once you have made some initial steps you will have started on your journey of personal expression.
We will deal with sharing & feedback in a later article, we must be careful here!
ICM street photography, fashion in pastel shades
Hopefully this article has helped you to start thinking about and maybe has nurtured the beginnings of the belief that you can be creative, and you can add some form of personal self expression into your work, it’s about rediscovering what it might be within you. Everyone has the ability to be creative and personal expression doesn’t need to be ‘original’ or deep and meaningful, at some point it may become so, but exploring what inspires you is personal expression. By taking the actions described above, primarily giving yourself permission, and moving forward slowly, you’ll begin to know what you might be capable of, but don’t forget you have permission to make mistakes, they are part of learning and development.
