HYPERPHOTOGRAPHY

Osaka ricoh gr ii selfie

Dear friend,

A recent thought: let us seek to make photography a stimulus in our lives. Let us become “hyper photographers” — to urge and impel ourselves higher in life.

Getting stronger through photography

Dark suits. Osaka, 2018
Dark suits. Osaka, 2018

I am quite interested in this scientific concept of hormesis, in which having stress (in moderate doses) will make us stronger. The word hormesis comes from means: “rapid motion, eagerness” and comes from the ancient Greek (hormaein) which means “to set in motion, impel, urge on.”

Which made me wonder–

How can we become photographers who are always in rapid motion, eager to shoot, and able to keep ourselves self-motivated to keep moving and shooting?

In other words: How can we set ourselves in motion, and impel/urge ourselves to keep shooting, and never lose inspiration?


HYPER PHOTOGRAPHY PRINCIPLES

Diagonal lines, osaka

These are some thoughts I have:

  1. The purpose of photography isn’t to become the world’s best photographer, nor to impress others with your photography. Rather, the purpose of photography is to help us live a happier life. A life with more activity, more movement, and to essentially make more art for ourselves. However too often we lose motivation in our photography because we feel like we need to impress others with our photography and to get more likes/social media followers.
  2. By becoming a ‘hyper-photographer’, we focus more on SHOOTING A LOT, every day, and constantly experimenting, rather than making “good photos”. We don’t seek to impress others with our photography. Rather, we seek to just have fun, and to treat photography like our visual play-thing; to re-arrange reality with our photographic compositions, and to shoot scenes to see what they would look like photographed.
  3. Permit yourself infinite experimentation in your photography; remember, ‘Everything is permitted in photography!‘. Ignore all the “rules” you hear about photography online, in schools, or in traditional art-photo education. Always take your photography back to the fundamentals (first principles), and let yourself be consciously ignorant of what other photographers are doing. Creatively isolate yourself for certain periods of time, maybe delete your Instagram, and master photography for yourself, according to your own terms/rules.
  4. Never stop moving: When in doubt, opt for the smallest/lightest camera, to allow yourself unlimited movement and freedom. The more you move the more active and the more you will shoot. The more you are active, move, and shoot, the more healthy you’re going to be (mentally/physically/spiritually).
  5. Master your own aesthetics for yourself, by uploading photos to your own photography blog/website, and moving at a break-neck speed. Think of yourself like a blacked-out Lamborghini for your own photography.
  6. Best to study photography not from modern photographers, but the master photographers from the past. Also study the old-school masters of art; to cross-pollinate your ideas/skills in photography in a novel way.
  7. Anything that makes you more productive as a photographer is good. Experiment with different forms of visual art/photo/video making to inspire/motivate yourself. For example, study cinema, and even practice shooting video to creatively spur yourself.

Conclusion: Never stop soaring

Red and blue osaka reflection.
Red and blue osaka reflection.

As a conclusion, never stop soaring. Know your potential is infinite. Always seek upward elevation, and ruthlessly cut any dead weight which holds you down.

Trees. Osaka, 2018
Trees. Osaka, 2018

What are you capable of? Only seek to prove it to yourself, and know the world is ripe with opportunity. Create your own niche for yourself.

BE BOLD,
ERIC


Photography Philosophy

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