I remember a few years ago, when I was out shooting with a group of photographers, one of them mentioned that a particular location and shot captured by another photographer was on his ‘photography bucket list’. On hearing this, I cringed (for a variety of reasons some of which could become the topics of another blog post) but for this musing I thought where’s the originality in that? Where's the creativity in that?
Having some time to mull this over I reflected on my reactions and realised that we all go through stages and phases in our creative journey (me included) and one of those phases in our creative journey is to replicate images created by those we admire and are inspired by. It allows us to learn and develop. Even Leonardo Da Vinci was known to do this early on in his career. And of course, we can’t forget the quote commonly attributed to Pablo Picasso that “Good artists copy and great artists steal.”
“Good artists copy and great artists steal."
~ Pablo Picasso
So imitation is part of the creative process, but I would argue it is not where you should stop which is where I fear my fellow photographer might have. I believe, imitation is where you should begin. After all what do you do when you have bagged all the shots on your ‘photography bucket list’? Do you stop creating or photographing?
When an image inspires me and asks me to linger, I often find myself delving deeper and asking; What was the artist/photographer thinking and feeling? How does it make me feel? How has the composition enhanced the image? What colours, forms, shapes, textures make it work? Do I want to create images like that? Could I do that with the skills I have now? If not, could I develop the skills and learn how to do it? What do I need to do that? And so on. By examining an image and a photographer’s style in this way I can distill exactly what it is that I like and then I can begin to integrate it with my own creativity. I can even begin to think of locations where I could try the technique or approach out for myself and ‘remix’ it with my own vision, rather than going to the location of the original image. Of course, there are challenges with this approach. You may make several images and none of them work or bring a sense of achievement, but isn’t that where the challenge and fun is? By working to enhance our imagery and art and pushing ourselves further ‘happy little accidents’ (to quote Bob Ross) occur and that is where the magic is.
To illustrate the point, I created the image ‘Walkin’ in the Rain’ after admiring the work of Valda Bailey. I researched the techniques she uses to create her images and began playing around with layering images in Photoshop (which I only have a basic knowledge of how to use). I chose images to layer up with no real idea of how they would look together. I had no plan in mind about what I was creating but was enjoying the process and how the colours, textures and layers were interacting with each other. Suddenly the shadow of a figure appeared changing the entire image, giving it meaning and story. A happy little accident!
This is my approach to the creative process. It's not without its challenges but I find it more enjoyable than bagging a shot from a ‘photography bucket list’. For me, it is fulfilling and satisfying and as Forest Gump said, “you never know what you’re going to get”.
"Don't wait for inspiration, it comes while working." ~ Henri Matisse
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