Creativity and photography: when thinking about how to hone our photographic skills, we often focus on technique or equipment. Certainly, a good technical foundation helps you find the best way to express yourself, and equipment also plays a part. Yet, so many terrific photos have been taken with unsophisticated cameras and basic settings. How come? What is interesting about the photos of so many past photographers who didn’t have access to today’s technology and yet took extraordinary images? And how can we develop our photographic creativity?
The photographer’s eye and photographic technique
Learning photography also means developing one’s personal photographic eye, making explicit our view of the world in the way we frame, in what we frame and in the choice of the moment in which we shoot.
Sometimes, learning new techniques can stimulate our photographic creativity. For example, “slow sync flash” is a technique that involves using flash and a long exposure time of 1/6th of a second or even longer. If we are in a rather dark environment and there are a few lights here and there (small bulbs, candles, even neon lights), we can set the shutter speed low and use the flash. We point the lens at a main subject and – while shooting – shake the camera. This way, the flash will fix the subject and the lights will create irregular trails on the subject and background.
If you have never used slow sync flash before, you can give it a few tries, and then it will be one more tool available to your photographic language. It’s a very useful technique for documenting parties and events because it adds dynamism to an image. If – in addition to using slow sync flash – we tilt the camera a bit, the result will be even more dynamic. But knowing the technique is not enough; we need to have the sense to use that very technique on that occasion. Or another technique, or, on the contrary, no particular technique but our sensitivity, our creative vision expressed in a shot.
Simplicity as a creative solution
For his series In The American West, Avedon used only natural light. These extraordinary portraits, taken between 1979 and 1984, were made by mounting a white backdrop outdoors in a shaded area, usually in front of a sunlit wall so that the soft reflected light enveloped the subjects.
These were simple sets on which the great photographer captured the working class in rural and suburban areas of the West. The choice to mount a backdrop outdoors in certain lighting conditions ensured a continuity of style for a project that has endured. In addition to light, of course, there is the choice of simple, essential framing and the ability to interact with the photographed subjects in a way that captures their so intense and present expressions.
Studying the solutions adopted by great photographers is certainly an effective way to find inspiration for one’s shots. But not the only way.
Expose yourself to many stimuli
When we have to learn something technical, it’s pretty easy to predict how long it will take us to acquire the skills we need. Perhaps it will be enough to read a few pages of an instruction booklet. On the other hand, it’s difficult to make plans for one’s own inspiration and creativity. Can we perhaps decide, “Tomorrow, I will come up with a brilliant creative idea”?
It’s unrealistic to make predictions about when and how we will feel inspired; we can only prepare the ground for it to happen. One way to invite creative ideas is precisely to expose ourselves to an abundance of stimuli, for example, by exploring the results of other people’s creativity: photographs, movies, shows, exhibitions, paintings and art galleries have the ability to stimulate our imagination and creativity.
Another possibility is to study the techniques and creative processes of others, as in the case of Avedon just mentioned. Looking at images is undoubtedly important, but seeing how he made those images is even more stimulating.
Avoid too many stimuli
Another way to invite inspiration (besides exposing yourself to lots of stimuli) is to clear your mind, avoid focusing your attention on thoughts and leave space for something to emerge. Quiet. Not coincidentally, new ideas and innovative solutions seem to come to mind most easily when we are not racking our brains looking for them: when we wake up, in the shower, while jogging, etc.
Ideally, alternating moments in which we expose ourselves to lots of visual stimuli with others in which we clear our minds helps create fertile ground for creativity to manifest.
An excellent practice for clearing the mind is meditation, and – in fact – there are many photographers who meditate to maintain a calm mind, feel present and be able to focus, even when shooting in stressful situations.
Avoiding habituality
Our mind loves habituality because by doing the same things the same way, it avoids having to solve new problems. But this also makes it a bit lazy, and it struggles to come up with new creative ideas. A great way to keep the mind from becoming lazy is to constantly present it with new experiences.
We generally don’t pay much attention to what we are used to; instead, we are struck by something unusual. An unexpected experience forces us to be more alert, more present. Think of situations involving a lot of novelty, such as a vacation: everything is new, we are more alert and feel highly stimulated.
While it’s true that we don’t necessarily have the opportunity to travel often and be inspired by new locations, perhaps exotic places, it is also true that we always have the opportunity to intentionally do new things, face new problems, find new solutions and avoid the “autopilot” mode. Just change supermarkets and go to places where you are not as well-oriented and don’t already know where to find what you’re looking for, or change your route. In other words, we can reproduce the experience of being on the road in our own city. Even if our experiences are not directly related to photography, they are still stimuli and also visual solicitations that keep our attention in training.
Continually learning photography
For us photographers, photography is a continual learning process. Even when we master a technique or style, it’s important to remain curious and open to finding new ways forward. Creativity is not only that amazing idea that allows us to create extraordinary images; it is also our curious attitude that allows us to keep discovering new ways of observing the world and representing it. Photographic creativity helps us find the right language to describe the atmosphere of a given situation. Sometimes, even just a small change in framing can correspond to a drastic change in the final impact.