It’s been a while since I last sat down to write a blog simply because I haven’t had anything to write about.
Until now that is. I think.
I’ve been inspired to sit and write something by a question about inspiration!
My mate Chris posted the following question on his instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/chrisjwardphotography/ - check him out his work is really good!)
“What’s the difference between influenced by and inspired by?”
As it happens, this is something that I’ve been looking into and could share my thoughts on.
This will be mostly be about the ‘inspired by’ aspect of the question but the difference should become apparent.
You might also find this useful if you are in a creative ‘rut’.
Back to Chris’s question.
Initially, when feeling somewhat uninspired I take that well trodden path others take, I start to look at the work of other photographers.
It’s completely natural, but lately I found it wasn’t helping.
I recognised the dangers where, if the 'inspiration' bulb has faded so much and you've no ideas of your own, the influence hand of others work can lead you down the copying path.
It is important to note here that this is not a critique of those people who enjoy following in the tri pod and foot steps of others and following 'how to' instructions. I doubt for one moment they care what I think anyway and why should they?
What others do (and some of it is great!) to get their photos is down to their own creative mind. I just want to plough my own field and style.
It is horses for courses and if they are happy, I'm happy. Everyone needs to be happy.
But talking of horses has reminded me there is of course another hurdle.
Motivation.
I feel motivation and inspiration are close relatives in the creative world.
Can you be inspired but unmotivated or motivated but uninspired? They are linked in my mind.
Influenced is another matter. It means taking something from someone else's work/style and moulding it into a cake mixer with your own style.
But if you've no motivation then that means you've no interest to go in search of different ideas to inspire you.
In my case I lacked motivation for sometime.
I knew why. I no longer had the large and well equipped studio I had been managing to experiment with lighting.
The industrial site it sat on was sold by the owners for development.
After that, I was finding it difficult to get my arse out into the real world.
Because honestly I wasn’t sure what I wanted to photograph in the great outdoors.
I had no motivation because I'd been used to full control of my environment.
Whilst I enjoy all types of photography, street, landscape, portraits and even flowers(!) I'm not a big user of photoshop, therefore what could I photograph that interested me but didn't look like I've copied others - yet retained my own style?
In my own projects, I simply enjoy taking images that have something to say. One of the first things I ask myself when I look through the view finder is "Why am I taking this?".
Eventually I decided I needed to do some research. Something motivated me (possibly dusty cameras) to go look at how other fields of the arts find their creative spirit.
First stop, I went to Eel Pie Records in Twickenham. Simply because putting yourself in a creative environment is like a good base stock to a good gravy.
Richmond & Twickenham oozes creativity with connections to poetry (Alexander Pope) , Art (Turner) and musicians (Rolling Stones/ Pink Floyd) to name but a few.
The shop is small, but you can just immerse yourself in the smell of vinyl, whilst obscure music from artists you've unlikely heard of is played in the background, with all the cackles and hissing vinyl brings.
Then to add to the smell atmospherics, a wiff of something more exotic wafting off of a fellow searcher of music.
As my fingers flicked by the last LP in the row, I glanced up to see a small flyer advertising a film society that shows indie / word cinema films.
For a fiver I could go and watch a Japanese art house film.
Now you may laugh, but most of the famous Hollywood directors will have studied this stuff.
They study the intricate workings of the earliest films ever made too.
So I paid my fiver and popped along.
Wow.
The story, atmosphere, the natural feel of the film really held my attention.
Not only that, it was clear all present were present.. as in ‘in the moment’ because they had an interest.
Guess what?
Not one phone ‘pinged’! That was bloody refreshing I can tell you!
More about that shortly.
Thankfully it had no CGI, no hero swinging down a rope and saving a damsel in distress or taking on a hundred strong heavily armed gang with nothing more than an elastic band.
This film just felt ‘fresh’ and different.
It portrayed reality and emotion. It provided a connection.
Two weeks later I went along to watch a French film. Same vibe. (Although there was one ping.. (to which there was a collective huff response)
This was a world where I could explore a diversity of story telling, styles, cultures and ways of portraying and connecting with them.
This is good for the creative mind.
I had been a member of a great photographic society.
Over the years I had seen some interesting presentations of award winning photographers work and ‘how to’ get particular looks.
Tips and support were aplenty as the cohort of members contained some VERY talented, knowledgeable but just as importantly helpful photographers.
Oh and I would recommend anyone wanting to polish their own photographic glass eye, to check out a local camera club (DM me for more info).
But for me, for now, I needed to widen my vision beyond the ‘how to’.
I needed to feel ‘why’ I was pointing my camera lens at someone/thing.
So this year I didn’t renew my membership.
I joined the film society.
However, the words of wisdom some of the photo society members shared with me still ring in my ears and I remain friends with many of them, tapping them up occasionally for advice (and drinks).
Through the film society I discovered an Adult Education course studying world cinema.
Some research and an application later, I now find myself half way through the course.
It’s been brilliant. I just hope I get a certificate or something to show my mum that time spent in state paid for education wasn't entirely a waste of tax payers money. I'd managed to convince a well respected college to allow me to join in the evening antics.
Anyway the film course, it’s not just watching films.
Well it is, but it encourages you to think and look deeper at the films we have to watch.
Our amazing lecturer gives the film context by taking a deeper dive into the creative ‘why’ and not always about ‘how’ the film was made.
We’re given an insight into the history on that writer or director or the films country of origin.
Ok, hands up there have been films that I’ve watched and thought “what was that all about?” but later returned to after our lecturer has given us the background. I then saw them in a different light.
Admittedly one or two still remain beyond me, but you get the idea.
But this course inspired me to do a short creative writing workshop in Haiku poetry - bear with me on this one - as I’ll return to poetry in a second, but that too started to inspire me.
I’m not going to go all Barry Norman or Mark Kermode here, but we’ve studied a number of very thought provoking films. One of them ‘Lore’.
Now please DON’T look it up until you’ve finished this blog as it’ll be good to see if my idea works.
Each week a student is asked to give a presentation on a film that we had watched that week for the course.
Rather than give a presentation, I thought I’d write a poem of sorts and read it out in class.
A poem that would convey the films emotion and story.
Here’s what I read out in class.
The Trauma Of War
Lore, you share your blossoming beauty with the Black Forest,
Living your young life with younger siblings,
Blissfully detached from your Nazi father’s involvement in the dying throes of war.
Your father runs cowardly,
Your mother dressed to the nines surrenders to the lie,
You are mother now,
Escaping through the countryside,
Muddied wheels and jewels.
Asking strangers to help you to exist.
Baby brother wet nursed by a stranger for a trinket,
Blood, starvation and rags,
And tragic loss,
Discovering yourself,
Scared and confused,
Torn between human love
But hatred for a stranger,
Why?
The reality wakes in you,
Ashamed,
Solace is found, but at what cost?
The lie runs deep,
You want to crush it with the heels that crushed so many,
You want to heal,
A time to heal.
——————
Now for those who went to school with me, poems are not all ‘Hickory dickory dock’.
For those more enlightened in the world of literature, of course it’s not quite T.S Eliot either.
However on reading it to the class there was a silence. There were people in the class I hasten to add.
I thought “oi oi, that went down like a lead ballon”.
Then they all applauded. Our lecturer subsequently asked me to send it to her as she felt it was very moving.
Now heres a question for you my lovely reader.
Did this ‘poem’ move you? Did you visualise what was the film was about or indeed any scenes from a line of the poem?
If not, try to.
If they did, please let me know. And if you’re really intrigued now, go watch it.
And that comes back to this inspiration & motivation malarkey.
I’d never done anything like that before, but by delving into other art forms, I started to experiment with words which in turn have helped me visualise images that could form a narrative.
In my research into those other art forms three common themes emerged.
Just give it a go, every successful artist has. Many unsuccessful artists have too of course. But most successful artists really haven’t given too much thought to how their work would be received. They simply payed very close attention to the work they are creating. If it meant something to them or it felt right, as long as it was from ‘within’ then they were ok with that.
2. If you’ve an idea, try it, stick it out there. Because if you don’t, you can bet someone else is about to.
3. Write. Keep a note book and just write down ideas that come into your head. You’ll not remember them later no matter how hard you think back. It really doesn’t matter if it's gibberish. It’s your book, your pencil, your hand moving it. Some writers keep books by the bed at night in case they wake up with an idea as they know by the morning it’ll have ‘gone’.
They all also stretch their own research beyond their field of work and they shared ideas.
I’ve adapted some of the techniques they’ve shared for my own needs (more to match life’s usual demands) but even they are seemingly starting to inspire me.
It’s stretched the imagination beyond looking at other peoples photographs.
Which I will still do of course, but thats not my sole ‘go to’ for ideas now. In fact it’s my last.
Now some people say why bother? Why not just take nice photos and be happy.
I do and I am. I still ‘snap’ away at lovely sunrises/sunsets/ the dogs/ etc etc
I will snap away till the cows come home - which they wont as I don’t have any.
Not everything I take is bunged onto instagram.
But there is also need in me to present images that portray something more than something aesthetically pleasing.
Naturally it helps if there’s an aesthetically pleasing element to keep the eye, but did you notice I said ‘something more’ than…’?
What do I mean by ‘something more than’?
It’s difficult to articulate, but a clumsy way to explain it would be 'it has a sense of something’ to it.
It could be a reflection of a face, it may be a misty scene with blurred figures emerging.
You feel that the photographer is asking you to use your mind and eyes on that photo beyond it being ‘nice’.
They’ve created a photograph through an idea in their mind to the eye to the camera lens.
That means coming up with ideas.
What is the subject matter?
What do you want to convey in that photograph?
Coming up with ideas is difficult.
But they will come if you water the mind with the right fertiliser.
I mentioned the note book as it’s an easy carry item.
The second you get your phone out to make a note you’ll be distracted by a notification. It’ll interrupt your idea.
Also with an electronic device you can delete and amend the idea. The original idea has disappeared into the ether.
That spontaneous thought gone!
Just leave the ideas on the paper no matter how gibberish they may look.
Later I’ll flick through my notes to get a flavour of what I was thinking.
Even that idea or sentence with a line through it may come back as the best idea.
Another misunderstood method is mindfulness.
This isn’t ‘woo woo’ witch craft.
It doesn't mean emptying your head of thoughts. That's almost impossible unless you're a trained monk that has sat on top of a mountain for years.
It means being present and paying attention.
Re-tuning our minds and eyes. The demands on them increase with every new app or notification of a funny video. Or indeed work.
In context of our evolution these electronic devices happened about 0.0000001 second ago. So naturally we’re distracted as we’re not wired yet to really to absorb all these attacks on our senses.
We’re distracted and therefore we don’t notice stuff we may have before the digital information tidal wave hit us.
But we can notice ‘stuff’ if we want to pay attention to that 'stuff'.
When you’re at the cinema or theatre, turn the phone off. Turn it off when you’ve gone somewhere to be entertained or relaxing.
You don’t need to be distracted by vibrating messages.
Your attention will divert to “wonder who’s messaged me” for a while.
In which time you may have missed an expression from the actor, or a stunning piece of camera work that took ages to put together for your enjoyment.
But no , the phones vibrating away with a weather alert or a funny meme continue to grab your attention.
How many times have you been distracted by a phone sound in the cinema or see a screen light up?
Anyway, by practicing what I preach, I turned the phone off and discovered a fleeting breakdown of emotion by Bruce Springsteen when he was singing a song titled ‘The Last Carnival’ on his ‘Working On a Dream’ LP.
It’s about the loss of a long time friend.
However it was only when really listening to the LP with my eyes closed that I heard the emotion in his voice breaking briefly. It’s there if you care to listen.
When I heard his emotion for the first time. I felt it.
I now know that song really means something to Bruce and each time I hear it I’ll visualise him just holding it together in front of the mic.
That means my creative mind has fired up.
Sounds arty.
It is.
But it works. And thats what our imagining minds are made for.
Lemn Sissays poem covers this beautifully.
‘If it were not imagined
It could not be made
Therefore imagination
Must not be afraid!
So really immerse yourself. It’s really not hard - It just takes a commitment to do it in that moment of time.
Ask questions of yourself about the thing you’re seeing/hearing.
There are other methods for coming up with ideas.
I want to share these and see the results with those who want to try them, so I’m building a walking tour of London with these techniques built in.
I’ll be trailing it soon, so do keep an eye out on my social medial feed or this website for more news on that.
Thanks for reading!
Oh and don’t forget to message me if you felt the poem helped you visualise the film!