Creative Authenticity
Quite by accident, I stumbled upon Ian Roberts' book Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to dramatically improve your paintings as I browsed a local art's store looking for some printing supplies. The timing could not have been more appropriate as I found myself at a point where I was questioning my composition techniques and felt I needed a push from someplace. I was so impressed with this book that I ended up buying several additional copies and sent them to a couple photography friends. This, than was my introduction to Ian Roberts and I will talk about this book more in later posts. However this little narative serves as an introduction to why I ended up with Creative Authenticity: 16 Principles to Clarify and Deepen your Artistic Vision.
Mr. Roberts points out in his introduction that "this book is for artists and writers and anyone else engaged in the difficult but personally fulfilling path of creative expression. It's for those who are actually doing it, one way or another." I think this is a valid point and it is one of the reasons I have found Mr. Roberts views refreshing. Photography is not an art unto itself, it is a subset of the larger creative expression of what we see, whether it is through oils, drawing, watercolors, or the various permutations of digital photography. While the medium may be different, the same underlying principles can be applied uniformly across these art forms.
I cannot emphasize how much this book filled the gap int my approach to photography and filled in ideas that were fermenting in my approach to this medium. For example, lets take Mr. Roberts' 5th Principle; "Your Craft, Your Voice" I know this is easy and simple but it is also 100% relevant. The only path to crating pertinent, authentic, and compelling work is that it has to be authentic to the photographer; it has to be what moves you. This means it cannot be some one else's stile. How simple; but for many learning photographers, they spend their money and time attending workshops offered by various working professionals who show them their style of taking pictures. Beyond knowledge of relevant photographic spots and some techniques, these trips can produce more frustration that revaluation. One is being graded and subjected to that groups concept of what represents the appropriate style. One year I attended a seminar offered by a particularly famous photographer that was at the top of my admiration list. I went there with the objective of trying to be more like him and came away with the knowledge that we were different and I needed to be comfortable with who I am and what I saw. This is a really valuable lesson for all of us. We are all not Michelangelo, Claude Monet, Salvador Dali's, Ansel Adams, or Art Wolfe and it is at the heart of Creative Authenticity. We cannot be authentic to who we are if we are trying to be some one else.
However, just be being ourself and creating what moves us does not then give rise to the acceptance of bad art. To be an artist and to learn to express one's own craft takes work, time, exploration and knowledge. "If we are serious about giving expression to our voice, we need to master whatever skills are necessary, whether it is the ability to draw or a better sense of composition" One does not pick up a camera and call themselves a photographer. As one learns, studies, experiments, reviews their work, the intuitive and self expression grows. One should and must study other peoples work as a vehicle for improving their method of expression, but not to replicate some on else's vision.
All to often we see an image, say of Ansel Adams and we want to capture one just like his. That is not Creative Authenticity. Creative Authenticity is looking at the Grant Tetons and trying to create the most pleasing personal expression of what "you" see.
One other point that is really important and I am not sure one will read this in very many other places. Not every famous artist or photographers work is great or even good. Think about this. Not every Ansel Adams photograph was a great photograph. It's ok to look at one of his images displayed in a museum and think, "what makes that image so great." So, as we work at our creative expression, not every image of ours is going to be great or say something really significant. However, they represent the foundation with which we grow. Through self evaluation and the observation of people we trust, one can enrich their skill. Thus comes the value of studying others work with the knowledge that sometimes others make mistakes as well and we learn from what they were endeavoring to express.
Ok, last point: Principal 6; Showing Up. As Woody Allen said; "Success is 90% just showing up." Developing ones skill means constantly working at it; showing up. It is the constant response to stimulus. One does not become a better photographer sitting in front of a computer, applying more saturation to last years image. It is creating something today.