Stimulating Creativity.

Reducing your options can increase your creative options. When you have too much to chose from your mind becomes overwhelmed. Which way do you turn, what choice  should you make. As a visual artist, when the world is in front of you what should you chose to do. If you are given a stick and told to create art from the stick, it becomes an easier task. For me the first part of the creative process is to limit my parameters, to box myself in.

Working to create only still life photos creates that box. Finding a theme within that box, (my themed photos of bubbles), creates an even smaller box.

So for me the best way to stimulate my creative mind is to narrow my options

I am sure other artist have methods at coming up with creative solutions for there work. I would love to hear from anyone else on the subject of stimulating creativity.

Making Something From Nothing

What could be closer to nothing then a bubble. A little soap and water. I have been exploring ways of taking this most simple thing and finding ways to give it visual substance. That is my personal challenge to my self. Isn't that what art is, to give self imposed problems to visually solve?

The Constructed Image

The photo can be a constructed image, put together with props, background, and lighting. I have been working on several constructed images, one theme being bubbles. What interest me is there fragility and transient nature. They last but seconds and can be gone before they are fully created. Bubbles are beautiful in their symmetry. I often take real things and make them un-real because of  their visual  or psychological
context. This is one of the approaches I took with the bubble pictures. This results in a puzzle the viewer must solve. Its a game to create an aesthetic with the known that becomes un-known. Art should excite, challenge, touch your psyche, hart, or make you question.  

The Camera As A Time Machine

Part of the magic of photography is the ability to effect how we conceive time. we have recorded people and things that are no longer here. We also can make accurate records of patina on objects that show time has effected them. The visual record of people who have matured records the character that time has left with them. We also see transition of season, weather, and erosion. Only photography as a medium allows us a true perception of the passage of time. In all actuality every time we press the shutter that fraction of a second in time has passed and cannot be retrieved. In creating art with photography we should use this to our advantage to make pictures that transcends time or embrace it. Time should be a consideration in how we make images  The church is no longer here. The water fall is the same, there was a ten year span of time between the two pictures. The patina of the factory door shows years of use. The feathers fade toward the edge of the picture showing an evolution of time  with the use of five separate exposures.

Timeless Elegance? How Do We Achieve It

How do you achieve a timeless quality and a sense of elegance and still make creative images. Many of those photographers we call our greatest artist used the most traditional methods. There appeared to be no following of the latest trends, or making use of new techniques for the sake of the  technique. I have noticed that most of these photographers relied on a unique vision, a way of working, or concepts. There are three photographers that have had a profound effect in my personal development as a photographer. Of course there is Ansel Adams, then Eugene Smith and Richard Avedon. They all worked in different areas of photography, but had common threads. They all had a unique and consistent vision, ways of working, and concepts. They were also all masters of their craft. These factors resulted in a sense of style that made their work instantly recognizable.

Over the last forty years I have attempted to develop a unique vision. I have concentrated on the black and white still life silver gelatin print. I have worked to master craft. The pictures I made thirty five years ago retain the same since of style as my current work. I have worked to achieve a unique timeless elegance using simple subjects.

The Calla Lillie was shot thirty five years ago. the Bubbles and Weed were shot last week.  The Photos are from four different portfolios. The still life pictures number in the hundreds.

Is The Photo The Truth

We see the photo as truth, an exact representation of how something or someone looks. We use them as evidence in court, and as historical reference, both personal and public. Photos are used to describe both product and process. The photo itself is not truth only a representation. It can be manipulated, and changed to express concept or ideas, or become visually poetic.

The photo in concept is much like a shadow. A shadow is only a representation of the real thing, created by light. The shadow can be manipulated and changed. Using shadows as a key element in a series of photos is an intriguing concept. The image formed by light,(the photo) is used to make images formed by light,(the shadow). The photo is further removed from the truth and is a suggestion of that truth.  

Abstract

Can the content be literal or narrative with an abstract concept. Why not? This may force us to examine ideas beyond the image. We can continue to honor the aesthetic and craft of the photo.