in search of inspiration

The single hardest aspect of photography, or any art for that matter, is feeling inspired, having the motivation to go out with your camera and take some shots. Finding exactly what it is that inspires you can be a difficult journey.

Personally, inspiration used to mean looking through Instagram and seeing which photos looked cool or noticing trends amongst popular posts, then trying to recreate these. I would get sucked into the comparisons, struggling to recreate the same shot and feeling demotivated. As we all know, social media should not be trusted. You can quite quickly find yourself comparing yourself and feeling deflated instead of inspired. I also find that the algorithm often pushes the same kind of content to you, so your feed can feel quite monotonous with little variety. It is also easy to fall into the trap of thinking you cannot do something because you don’t have the right lens, film, camera, weather, city.

Focal Point, the photoclass I am currently studying, has a unit on inspiration. The module explains that photography is an art medium, so any other medium of art can also be used as inspiration. I found it eye opening that rather than only looking at other photographers’ work, I could find inspiration by looking outside of this: books, fine art, magazines, videos, film, both online and offline - truly there is a plethora of content available to spark some motivation.

Perfect Days is a great example of a film that inspired me so much after watching it. Not only is the film shot incredibly well (I love movies shot on filmstock), but it shows the joy that can be had if we stop still and take in our surroundings fully. After watching this film I can say that I always stop when I see komorebi dancing away on a wall.

Of course it is all too easy to favour online resources but there is something to be said about standing in front of a piece of art and fully absorbing it in. I mean, looking at something and trying to analyse as much as you can from it - the framing/composition, the textures, the colours. A lot of the same compositional guidelines used in photography also across other art forms. Opening your world of inspiration also opens you to new ideas, art mediums, techniques and genres. This is one aspect I would like to explore more - my references and inspo folders mainly have photographers’ work. My aim is to start adding other works of art that intrigue me, and then to see the common themes and aspects in the collection.

You can also find inspiration through looking at your own older work, as cringeworthy as that is. Cringe helps us realise our progress and how much we have learned along the way. This could be re-editing an older shot with newer techniques. or revisiting certain themes that didn’t quite work the first time around. By looking at older works of other artist, you can see certain elements that stay there or develop with time too. This article on the works of Van Gogh also shows this.

Another photoclass assignment we had was to pick one of our submissions and act on the feedback, and use this as a prompt to take a new photo. The photo I selected didn’t have the visual impact I wanted. Even with a tight crop, the scene loses a lot of its detail and didn’t have a clear enough subject.

This led me to my local library, where I found Antony Zakaria’s book - The Minimalist Photographer. Even though my work is not close to minimalism, I was hoping I could learn some techniques to declutter my shots, creating more simple photos with big impact. I loved reading this book - it is a great collection of work from different eras and photographers, and also highlights a wide range of different techniques and compositions that have definitely made their way into my inspiration folder. These 50 techniques could easily be used as prompts as well.

I have been making it a habit to utilise the resources I have locally. The Norwich Millennium library has a great selection of art and photography books, scans of which have slowly been building out my reference folder. The only other book I’ve added to this folder are excepts from Mostly People, Erika Stone which has showed me the power of B&W photography. This folder is currently housed online in a section on my playbook, although I like the idea of printing some of these so I could have a more analogue copy with me.

why inspiration is important

When you have a passion for something, it is paramount to absorb as much as you can. Priya is amazing at this. Being around her gives me so much motivation to do the same. She surrounds herself with art, letting it consume her. She reads about art, watches art on YouTube, her creative space is filled with the things that inspire her. It is clear to see that this is not just a hobby or interest but a need, a creative way of being.

If you are able to surround yourself like this, it will surely absorb even if on a subconscious level. You may start to picture certain compositions, or be drawn to things that previously were ignored. At first you may need to intentionally copy a reference photo, but over time it can become second nature. Our inspirations can shape us, guide the way to want to practice our art, and ignite something within us to keep going.

Finding inspiration keeps us motivated and accountable for creating and pursuing our interests. Without this we can become mundane, demotivated and unproductive.

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As we move through the tail end of summer, here’s a few random shots from Norwich: