I recently started making a running list of lessons derived from my six year and counting flirtation with photography. Lessons which I feel also translate to other domains and areas of life. After all, when one is out and about photographing, is it that different to hunter-gatherer behaviour?
- Exposing oneself to serendipity is nine tenths of the creative law.
- Very few people are immune to the simple flattery of someone unexpectedly paying genuine attention to them.
- Traversing the world with a prop (such as a traditional camera) is an easy ice-breaker that many people will use as an excuse to engage your attention.
- Aesthetically, the importance of the technical can often degrade at a much faster rate than the importance of situation.
- Signalling matters. Even though they can do very similar things, having a traditional camera tends to make people take you more seriously than if you were walking around taking the same photos on a smart phone.
- Simplicity can add gravity. A black and white photo contains less information than a colour photo yet can arguably seem more important. As Kevin Kelly noted, “Art is in what you leave out.”
- People are more interested in your art when it makes them feel important.
- Art is always collaboration, even if it’s just with the environment you find yourself in. This should guard against the excesses of artistic ego.
The Thoughts of Others
“To get unusual results, work fast and work cheap, because there’s more of a chance that you’ll get somewhere that nobody else did. Nearly always, the effect of spending a lot of money is to make things more normal.” – Brian Eno
