If we think about depression as more of a physiological condition, perhaps the best way to fight and overcome depression is via stimulants which motivate us to move and dance!
Some practical ideas of things which work for myself:
For example, if our photos were to last forever, what hope could there be for future generations of photographers and artists? If we were forever under the tyranny of the shadow of Henri Cartier-Bresson, what bright and new future would that have for us photographers?
My personal life goal: to become insanely great. FAR BEYOND BASIC.
My thought:
Life is short. Why not strive to maximize your own personal greatness while you are still alive? To see how far you can fly, in order to inspire others to also become insanely great.
How to become insanely great? Now this is something we must strive with all our might towards!
Our lifeblood as photographers: not being so concerned with the photos we’ve made in the past, but more interest in creating NEW art works, NEW photos!
You change, your subjects change, the way you approach photography changes, your personal aesthetics change. The light changes, society changes, all changes!
The aesthetics we decide to adopt are based on our ethics, our peeoenal beliefs, and what we concern as beautiful, of value, and of positive utility to ourselves.
I don’t think “the decisive moment” is the most accurate description in street photography. The notion of the “brazen” (daring, gutsy) moment seems more fitting.
One of our modern vices (in America, and most of modern society) is that we like to ‘work for work sake’. Utilitarianism: when we are NOT working, we are ‘sinning’.
But still– I like to do stuff. I like the idea of ‘doing more’. Doing more of what I love and care about. For myself that means making more photos, looking at more of my own photos, writing more, thinking more, walking more, wondering more, and creating more.
The question on my mind:
What are the practical strategies in order to achieve more in a 24-hour day, and within our lifetime?
Supreme energy: From morning until evening, having apex energy, alertness, wakefulness, and enthusiasm and excitement. Perhaps this requires extreme amounts of sleep in the evening (9-11 hours a night), intermittent fasting during the day (no food consumed during the daytime), and ample black coffee during the day. Also ideally sunlight, lots of walking.
Supreme artistic output: Tons of writing, thinking, and artistic creation. For myself this means being enraptured all day in ideas, thoughts, and artwork. To keep exploring deeper into the depths of art, beauty, design, and philosophy. To keep outputting much writings, thoughts, photographs, videos, music, and poetry. To create great products and things to empower others. Necessity: great coffee shop, great music to get into the zone.
Supreme physical and physiological health and strength: Much muscle, physical strength, low bodyfat percentage. Attained by eating lots of meat and bitter herbs (no carbs or sugars). Also through testing and training your body via feats of strength.
Let me strive to attain my own ideal, and I will share my findings and I go along!
As adults what capacity have we lost? The ability to play! To play for the sake of play. To play with our super abundant energy. To play as a form of creative activity and outpression.
To play with no tinge of guilt or “pang of conscience”.
The art of solo travel: travel at your own cadence, follow your own internal rhythms. No rush, no obligations. Just do what you want to do, and don’t do what you don’t want to do.
No obligation to see tourist spots. Instead, using your travels as a means of self exploration, self understanding, self meditation, and self reflection.
Using your travels as a chance to disconnect, to spend more time by yourself in order to think, write, read, create, blog, photograph, experience, and reflect.
In short, spend more opportunities you can to travel and fly solo!
My thought on how to stay inspired in your photography:
Tighten your feedback loop between shooting, selecting your photos, and publishing your photos.
This will keep you prolific to keep shooting new photos, derive new delights from your new photos, and also be able to share your new photos (preferably on your own blog).
Simple ideas:
Shoot only jpeg with an in-camera filter you like.
Import and select your photos quickly and effectively. Experiment using iPad to import photos from SD card reader (lightning to SD), favorite your favorites and then upload them straight to your WordPress blog.
Just use the jpeg files. Don’t worry about post processing. This will save you much time and effort, and free up mental energy to go out and shoot more new photos!
The best feedback you can get is from yourself: whether your photos bring you joy or not. Otherwise upload your photos to arsbeta.com for real feedback and critique.
Why tighten your feedback loop in photography?
The upside of digital photography: instant feedback, which allows us to learn and improve at a much more rapid pace. Why not use this to our advantage?
Many of us desire more money, however I believe a better goal is this:
Seek to maximize your leisure hours and mental space.
Better to be poorer with more leisure than richer with less leisure.
Leisure as hours and emptiness of mind
Leisure requires an emptying of your mind. Fewer cares, duties, obligations, and responsibilities. Even if you had 10 hours of free time, as long as you got all these worries and concerns in your mind, you cannot leverage your time for creative, philosophical, or scholarly ends.
Or in short:
Seek more freedom and leisure to indulge your creative activities. Less concern with money, fame, and honors.
For example in photography, be highly selective about the photos you decide to keep or ditch.
In life, be highly selective in terms of the people you decide to let into your life. Be highly selective of the foods you eat, be highly selective of the books you read, and be very selective about the music and media you consume.
Life is limited and short. We cannot do everything, we cannot read everything, and we cannot listen to everything.
Perhaps this is the secret to thriving in life: deciding what NOT do do, what NOT to listen to, and what to ignore.
Hero: a demi-god, a watcher or protector of others. In Ancient Greek a hero was any of the major combatants in the Iliad (either the Greek or the Trojan side).
I think today, we need heroes, role models, and people we want to emulate more than ever.
