Creativity #1
Tool + Materials + Creativity
by Benjamin Weatherston - September 14, 2011
At the Art Fair this year I was introduced to L. John Andrew by Joshua Chamberlain. He makes art out of washers. Not washing machines, washers. Tons of them. He spot welds them to other washers and starts making shapes. Not just flat shapes but 3D shapes. And not just 3D shapes but functional 3D shapes. Furniture to be exact. My boys and Joshua's daughter all sat on a couch made of washers! Check out his "Washerture".
And just last weekend we were up in the U.P. for a little vacation and finally got to visit Lakenenland. It's a private sculpture park that's open to the public (unless you sit on the local board currently opposing him) that has some of the most interesting pieces of art. Too numerous to adequately display here, Mr. Lakenen's sculptures are not limited to a particular style. Colorful wolves, pigs, and elephants are sitting next to lumberjacks, political statements, and this motorcycle rider (whatever he is).
What amazed me about this is how boring washers and junk metal are to me. They are, by themselves, practically useless. I've never picked up a handful of little metal disks and thought, "I wonder what I could make with these." So what kind of mind would think to piece them together into furniture and creatures? The creative mind.
Creativity is the most precious commodity on the earth today and yet there is no limit to it. It can be cultivated but cannot be farmed. It will survive great trauma but easily dies of starvation. Without it, civilization (at least the one I want to live in) comes crashing to a halt.
Do you have a creative mind? How do you know? Maybe you just look creative?
We've reached an interesting place in the timeline of humanity where creativity can be faked more easily than at any other point in history. In 1511, an artist could not simply browse the web (on his phone) for inspiration (other people's work) while sipping on a latte (prepared for him) while listening to music (not played live). Ideas and inspiration have never been so directly funneled into our brains. But this is not creativity.
This brings me to the difference between creative stimulation and creative simulation. I can go online right now, find a handful of tutorials, and within 5 minutes "create" something that would be considered earth-shatteringly, unbelievably, shockingly original 100...50...even 20 years ago. But I myself didn't really create anything. I haven't added any new information into the world. Is this bad? Mmmm, no, but it's not creative. It's a creative baby step that most creative people need to take before they can eventually walk on their own.
So here's the really bad news: You have to be better than all of our photo forefathers. You have to be better than all of the Masters. We have to hold ourselves to a higher creative standard because we are standing on all of their shoulders. They built this house and we're just changing the curtains every so often. Some of the most truly creative people in the history of the world grew up without the internet, an iPhone, streaming video tutorials, magazines, cars, electricity, or even clean water.
And us as photographers are right on the edge of that wave of technology that puts us out in front of everyone. We look more creative because we can make super cool eye candy with 3 button clicks. We're that tiny lick of water so beautiful and free, leading the way. But from another perspective, that front droplet has the least power, the least influence, no motivation, no drive. Is that poor boat in any danger of us? No, he's getting schooled by the people that could create masterpieces out of thin air. Sometimes our comfort can actually rob us of our creativity. Guys, get serious, we don't even have to process film anymore!
We have it so easy and so does every other person in the developed world. Everyone has a camera, everyone has Photoshop, everyone has the internet. Even this idea that I'm communicating isn't all that creative because I've seen dozens of articles, essays, and lectures that pretty much say the exact same thing.
So how can I be sure I'm going to actually achieve a new creation with a blog post or a photograph? I don't know but that's part of the creative process. You could spend weeks at the Grand Canyon forging the most spectacular image only to find that someone took the exact same shot three years earlier and they did it better than you. Does that mean you wasted your time and aren't creative? No! Your photo is still different in many, more subtle, ways. You certainly brought something into the world and walked further down the path of a creative mind. Keep going!
I used to think that some people were creative and others weren't. You've got it or you don't. My understanding has matured to see that the more I work with my tools and materials, invest large amounts of time, and open my mind to the creative process, VOILA, I become a little bit more creative. It's like a destination you can't really reach. You never land on Creative Avenue and receive a "Get Out Of Boring" card. You simply keep moving toward your goal, and still go to work, pay the bills, be a spouse/parent/neighbor/friend, and contribute to the world. (PSST...Beware of people who put the pursuit of creativity above all else.)
But I'd also like to discuss the difference between materials and tools. We, as photographers, are working with the same materials we've been working with since the 30's. Light, color, composition, movement, focus, and meaning (or their absence). Cameras come and go, strobes evolve, film gives way to digital, software offers a helping hand. They are tools but we are merely using them to shape our materials. Over the next couple of months I'm going to be spotlighting each of these materials and discuss how they influence an image.
This is an image I took in India in 2005. One of the reasons I love this image is that I feel it respectfully handles all of the materials.
LIGHT: Dark skin, light sari. Light includes contrast not just brightness.
COLOR: Color and and it's absence. Saturation is good but sometimes less is more.
COMPOSITION: The way the arm stands out away from the body.
MOVEMENT: You instinctively know she isn't standing still like that all day long. Her movement is frozen but you feel the motion of the busy street.
FOCUS: Eyes are sharp but not much else.
MEANING: I want viewers to feel the mother's desperation and then pause on the child's face and wrap your brain around his icy stare.
Looking at the washer chair picture, can you tell what type of welding system he used? What type of gloves? Was he wearing eye protection? No, all you see is washers. With photography, we have to get to the point where we respect the materials for what they are and understand that the final piece rarely rats out the tools.
There are plenty of exceptions to this though. A photo taken with a fisheye lens immediately tells the viewer, "I was taken with a fisheye lens!" A hyper tone-mapped HDR image, extreme macro, ring light, long exposure, painting with light, and on and on. These are all tools that aren't content with hiding behind the materials. They aren't bad but I would encourage you not to mistake their "trick" for creativity. Creativity has to come from inside your brain and heart, not a lens or a light.
Photographers can sometimes elevate their tools above their materials. My advice is to save pedestals for lasting things. Our materials will last beyond us and our tools. 300 years from now, the industry of photography may look vastly different. But I feel rather confident that people will still be looking at images that are made up of light, color, composition, movement, focus, and meaning (and maybe 3D, God help us). How will they be made? I don't have a clue!
The point is to remember your most important tool: creativity. It's the only tool that is unique to every artist. It's why camera/light in the hands of one Henri becomes my favorite photo. And canvas/oil in the hands of another Henri becomes my favorite painting. And why metal/welder in the hands of an ornery Yooper becomes my favorite lumberjack.
(intentional horrible Henri/ornery joke)