“Always stay ready so you never have to get ready.” So said the great modern artist Constantin Brancusi, whose statement seems to be about both being ready with our equipment and materials and also about being ready emotionally for the creative act.
Learning to do photography well isn’t about checking a series of checkboxes about “how to do” the medium. Instead, it’s more about figuring out what to do with those basic principles of photography and then go out and make photographs using those basic ideas. It’s the “why” not the “how.”
How important is exploration to the creative process? The great author John Steinbeck thought it was supremely important:
“This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.”
Exploration of the world around us is an important part of photography. Steinbeck was talking about going out into the world and exploring, of course, but I think he was also talking about the freeing up of our minds to be open to new experiences.
The creative process can be broken down into four distinct processes, most of which we can foster in ourselves. We look at preparation, incubation, illumination and implementation and see where our world of image making intersects with these stages.
Intriguingly, the things that we think of as “creative” are really bookended by more pragmatic aspects of creativity.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” that’s what Socrates said. By looking at our past and both remembering and forgetting its lessons, we can begin to answer those questions about who we are, where we want our photography to take us and how we want to get there.
Jeff Curtos Camera Position
Photography podcasts that deal with the why of photography over the how and discuss the essential qualities of the medium from the point of view of the creative photographer.
Camera Position Gear
LensWork Folio
Photo History Podcast Store
Amazon
B&H Photo
The Camera Position App – Android version