Just a bit of a catch up on my thoughts..
Recently I’ve felt a little lost with where I am with my work. Yes, we all go through peaks and troughs of the creative cycle and I guess I’m just at the lower end of one at the moment. For no other reason than I’m looking for a new creative direction to go in and something to fire up my excitement. This doesn’t mean that I’m sat around not making any new work, in fact on the contrary. I know that my way through this little rut is to explore and see where I end up. I’m doing just that but there lays another issue; I feed my creativity with new material (mostly photographic books) and I get inspired by the works of others. This in turn then makes me want to go out and work like that individual. The frustration comes when I see myself doing this and I have to back track with the work I’m making. Why go backwards, well, I have to be careful that I don’t fall into the trap of simply copying these individuals. I have ventured out with my camera and produced images that aren’t really mine, obviously at best only copying others styles. I think any trained eye would spot this insincerity in my photography voice but worse, I know I’m not producing work that’s honest to me.
What am I thinking at the moment – I know I will find a new direction or excitement wrapped up in there somewhere and I just have to work through it to figure it out. Chances are its not going to be a game changer but rather something that compliments the gradual progression that everyone’s work goes through.
For now I am still working my way through my recent images from my trip to the Cornish coast. But as always, I keep an eye on the direction I’m heading in with the things I am shooting today. I’m sure that something will immerge soon and look like a nice continuation – but we know otherwise!.. all the work that goes on in the background is real
What’s your thoughts, and how do you get around those creative ruts? Always great hearing from you guys who take the time to read this, so I’d love to hear from you if you have time. I’m sure you know where to find me on Instagram.
keep creative and have fun (I’m also taking heed of this)
Dan
