Why You’re Not a Photographer, You’re a Visual Artist

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Hey streettogs,

Happy Friday! I wanted to start sending you some more email newsletters to hopefully keep your mind full of ‘turbo thoughts’, and also to keep you more inspired in your photography. I’m currently loving the new RICOH GR III [I highly encourage you to order one], and want to share some of this new-spring of photographic inspiration with you.

Why you’re a visual artist, not photographer.

This is the thought for today:

The photograph is not sacred. A photograph is visual art. Your job as a photographer isn’t to depict picture-perfect reality. Your duty is to create your OWN interpretation of reality, and strive to make it as beautiful as you can.

For example, take photos you’ve already shot in the past and re-mix them, re-edit them, or even draw on top of them [using Photoshop or Procreate for iPad/iPhone].

How to be creative everyday

I just gave a talk on creativity at Google titled: ‘CREATIVE EVERYDAY’ [link to PDF slides]. The basic notion is this:

How can you be creative everyday, even while holding down your 9-5 job?

The basic ideas include:

Consider yourself a visual artist. You don’t always got to be out photographing all day. You can re-mix your old photos, or even sketch, draw, do calligraphy [on any device]. To create visual artworks in Photoshop, on your phone, Zen Brush 2 Calligraphy App, Procreate– it is all legitimate.
We are happiest when we are creating. Thus, we should focus on ‘producerism‘ [opposite of consumerism]. The idea is we derive our happiness more from the act of creating, than the passive act of consumption.
Don’t judge your artwork as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Only judge your artwork as authentic or inauthentic to you [you are the ultimate judge].
If you want real feedback on your photos, upload it to arsbeta.com

Download the slides here >

Feel free to forward this or the PDF of the slides to your friends. Also, I will share a link to the YouTube video [in about 3-4 weeks] when the Google team processes the recording.