A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on a river, happily photographing grizzly bears. After a two-day drive and a quick turnaround at home, I was off to San Francisco to sign 1,000 copies of the hardcover special edition of my new book, Light, Space, & Time: Essays on Camera Craft and Creativity. I also spent time with my publisher and my editor, much of it dreading the inevitable question: “So? What’s the next book?”
I just finished this one; can we not just revel in that for a moment? Yes? Fantastic!
Oh, that moment is over now and it’s time to get back to work? Drat.
Every time my long-suffering editor, Ted, has asked me that question, I’ve replied with the same answer: “I have no idea. I’m empty and have nothing left, so I’m certain I’ve written my last book.” But then we get to talking about what I don’t want to do, and “if I were going to do another book (which I’m sure I won’t), I’d want it to be more along the lines of…”
As an hour ticks by, I realize I’m describing my latest itch—sometimes an itch I didn’t even know I had until I started talking about it—and Ted asks when he should send the contract.
Every. Damn. Time. It’s uncanny.
And now I’ve got an idea. It’s nothing more than a spark of an idea, really—a hint—but I’m excited about it. Starting places are some of the hardest bits of the creative life to come to, whether you’re writing or making photographs. “Where do I begin?” is a tough question. I also wrote a book about that called Start Ugly: The Unexpected Path to Everyday Creativity, and if you haven’t read it, you might want to (though this is not about that).
This is about the magic of knowing what you’re interested in. Doesn’t every photograph start that way? With something that catches your eye and distracts you, something that pulls your interest and makes you pick up the camera to explore it more. We used to say “shoot what you love,” but I think the better advice is to shoot what you’re interested in. Here are a few quotes about that from Light, Space & Time: Essays on Camera Craft and Creativity,and if you haven’t ordered it, you probably should 😉). Also? Some grizzly bears. Keep reading.
“The photographers with the most to contribute are those who are interested in the world around them and, because of this interest, see that world from different angles. They think about what they see in interesting ways, and when they share that with their audience and the world around them, it is a glimpse into new ways of seeing the world.”
“Being more interested in the world around you affects the practice of your craft because that’s how you get to new perspectives on what you photograph. It’s how to get to new ideas about those subjects towards which you point your lens. You can’t think more creatively about anything without being interested in it and giving it at least a second glance.”
“Only by being interested in what you photograph will you think about it long enough to see it from every angle, consider new approaches, and experiment with different combinations. This is the creative approach, and it alone is what gets you past the obvious, past the low-hanging fruit of what you have already done. I often hear the longing for more (or greater) creativity from photographers who say, “I wish I were more creative.” There are many angles from which one could approach finding that increase in creativity, but for now, I suggest it might be as simple as finding something in which you are truly interested. Not just kind of interested, but something closer to fascination. Something you think of when you don’t have your camera in your hand. Something that distracts you when you should be doing other things. Find that subject or theme, and you’ll have rich veins to mine.”
“To have more interesting perceptions is to be more interested, not just in one thing, but in many. That’s how we gather not only the dots that creativity is concerned with connecting but also the dots we actually care about—dots we spend time thinking about. In my experience, that’s how we get there: if you want to be more interesting, begin by being more interested. Want to be more creative? Be more curious.”
“If more interested photographers create more interesting photographs, then I don’t think it’s unfair to wonder what kind of photographs are made by bored photographers.”
A quick note: if you’re interested in how I made the low and close photographs, I’ve made a short post about my remote camera set-up here.
When Ted asked me what my next book was, I had no idea. But poking at it a bit, I sure knew what I was interested in (and what I definitely wasn’t interested in), and that was enough to get me started.
What are you interested in? What distracts you when you should be thinking of other things? Use that; leverage it. It’s both a compass to point you to new ideas and new work and fuel to keep you going past the ugly starts and the feelings of “this isn’t working” and into the new and heady creative territory that we find ourselves in when we get past the same-old, same-old.
Light, Space & Time explores the inner game of being a photographer. It’s about thinking and feeling our way into better photographs by being more aware of how we use one of our most important tools: our creativity. You can pre-order it through the links below.
For the Love of the Photograph,
David
