It’s amazing how chatty I get when I’m properly caffeinated! I’ve been thinking over and over about a conversation I had with a photographer I recently met at a workshop. We both talked about our careers so far, the plans and projects we have for the near future, and showed each other our work. After I saw her work, (which by the way was really good!) we talked about Sue Bryce, Joel Grimes, and my personal favorite Chris Buck. We also talked about Peter Lik and my friend Sarah Marino, both inspiring landscape photographers, one slightly more known than the other. After that, she talked about how she feels that she copies a lot and how sometimes she stresses about never being a pioneer. Even though I told her what I truly believe, which is that she doesn’t know yet if she will become a pioneer because she is still so young, (she’s younger than me!) and that copying is only natural because that’s how you find your style, these two statements stayed with me.
All my life I knew I wanted to do something artistic. I tried music, painting, acting, drawing, even sewing, none of those stuck. I moved to New York City back in 2004 and gave acting another try, it didn’t work out. Then I got a job at a PR office for a while, however, I was not necessarily happy. I took a photography class in college, but my professor was not very good so I lost interest. After leaving my job at the office in 2007 I decided to try photography again and took a film photography class. Thank the heavens the instructor was amazing! He loved photography and it showed in the way he taught and talked about it, (in case you are curious to see his work his name is Michael Meyer.) I was hooked, happy, and obsessed with this new discovery, and I wanted to become better and better with every shot I took, (especially because it was film and expensive!) After NYC, I moved to Denver and decided to continue developing my passion.
I want to addressed the “pioneer” complex, because I was glad to find out that I am not the only one who struggles with this.
Whoever knows me, is aware that my life is photography. I go everywhere with a camera, I am obsessed with light, with being “innovative,” and with making interesting pictures. I go conferences and week long, one day, and online workshops. I watch TED Talks, documentaries about photography and photographers, and my new favorite is Mark Seliger’s Capture show. I have more magazine subscriptions and books that I have time to read them; and I am always thinking about new gear or “new” ways to use the gear I own. I am always thinking about a new project and have a notebook full of “ideas” I am going to do “as soon as I get some time,” (well I have a bunch of them because I have an unhealthy fascination with pretty notebooks.) I’ve even been told a few times that I am talented, and not just by my mom or my wife. Nonetheless, every time that happens I have a hard time believing it because I am not teaching workshops, have not written a book or even been published in a national magazine. The word “pioneer” sticks to my brain like a bad migraine. I love learning, looking at pictures, going to museums, and creating, and hope that someday I am able to teach somebody something, but mostly I hesitate at doing so because I don’t think I have enough credentials to teach yet.
I know or I hope I am not the only one who struggles with this and it is for this reason that I wanted to tell everybody and their mother that you are not alone. What’s a pioneer anyway? I looked up it’s meaning so here it goes:
pi·o·neer
[pahy-uh-neer]
noun
one who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise,
or progress.
Even if you think that you are not a pioneer, you already are, because you are probably the first in your life doing what you are doing (yes, I am getting as literal as I can), you are doing what you love, and by doing so, you are constantly learning, constantly shooting, breaking into new ground, and every time you do that, you are probably coming up with something fresh and interesting, because it is interesting to you.
We should not be worrying about inventing the new technique or reinventing the wheel, those things are only going to happen organically if we are working. The only way to be a pioneer or be original is by doing, doing anything, trying new things, taking risks, trial and error, making mistakes, copying, going back to the drawing board and doing it again, I know it sounds cliché, but it is the truth. You are not going to create a new technique, invent an app, a new action, even a new preset by doing the same thing you’ve been doing, you have to go outside of your comfort zone. How many of us have hundreds of pictures that we won’t publish or even share with people close to you because you tried something new, and it didn’t work. Well now you know it doesn’t work and you will try it differently the next time. That’s how pioneering works.
Want to copy? Well, what you probably want to do (or are already doing) is adapting or even imitating. Notice that I am not talking about simply stealing images from another artist, but as we take classes from different instructors, we are trying out what they are teaching and then we keep what resonates with whatever aesthetic we are going for. See, copying is just reproducing, and my conversation with the photographer made me think about the difference between these concepts. Imitating is more of following something as a model or example. Some photographers do not mind the latter. For example, Sue Bryce doesn’t mind you imitating her style because she teaches specifically that, she teaches what’s worked for her and her business and wants you to be successful using her business model and her aesthetic. But not every photographer is that way.
Adaptation is a similar animal, but when you adapt you modify fittingly. When you use adaptation, you combine from stuff that has already been done (call it techniques, lighting, editing, etc.) to create something distinctive. My suggestion is to do a lot research, we live in and era where information is available to us and we must take advantage of that resource; also, take tons of pictures, by taking picture after picture you find something that speaks to you. You do this over and over again, until you figure out what you want to say and you see yourself. Imitating and adapting are not a bad things (well, it is only bad if it’s copy and paste and you are not really shooting anything!) imitating helps you figure out who you are and who you want to be, helps you define your taste and get to know what you like and dislike. By imitating and adapting you are trying new things, learning about what’s been done, and feeding your creativity. Want examples? Here are two:
Want to see more? Google it, after all, Google copied Yahoo and made it better.
Another take on “adapting” are these two successful projects, both were not first in shooting street photography or photographing dancers, but they sure gave it a cool twist:
By no means I am pretending to have this thing all figured out, I don’t. I am still working on creating images that reveal a bit of me and make me happy. There is so much talent out there that I want to see flourish and maybe I can help somebody explore their creativity better with this post. The way I see it, you stay curious and create for yourself, by doing so, you surprise yourself, making fascinating, provocative, intriguing pieces of work, and from that, comes the satisfaction of making something you adore, adding cool new images to your portfolio helping you get closer to originality.
