What if the best thing you could do for yourself and humanity is to create the most epic art-works you are capable of?
For example, don’t think of yourself as a photographer. Think of yourself as an artist. As an artist, it seems that our only duty in life is to create the most epic art-works we are capable of.
When I first started working my first 9-5 job, I desired deeply to become self-employed.
Why? I desired freedom! To show up everyday at an office at an arbitrary time, to leave everyday at an arbitrary time, and to do this from Monday-Friday seemed hyper-bizarre to me.
I thought to myself: We are living in the most modern and technological society. Why do we still need to show up to an office and put in a 40+ hour work-week?
I desired to become self-employed to escape this technological slavery. But what happens once you are self-employed, no longer need to wake up by a certain time, no longer need to attend meetings, no longer need to sleep at a certain time, no longer need to “work” during the day if you don’t want to?
This is my grand thought:
To become self-employed as a necessary step or a pre-requisite to attempt to do and create really great things.
If your passion is photography and you desire to monetize your passion and if you have the opportunity to get a free education, I encourage you to go to business school (instead of photography or art school).
But this is a huge thing:
Never go to school if you’re going to go into debt.
If you can do work-study, get scholarships, do it. Never ever ever go into debt, even for the most seemingly “great” opportunities. Debt is the devil; perhaps even worse.
I will optimize my life to live in accordance to myself. To optimize my life which is best for me. To optimize my life to not put unnecessary stress on myself (only positive stress, ‘eustress‘). To live more like a child– playfully, to challenge myself, and to live life to the fullest.
To ignore conventional wisdom. To discover the wisdom which works best for myself.
I want to go beyond the notion of ‘creativity’ as this “innate ability to make novel connections and to think differently”, into thinking about creativity as frequency and power of creating new art-works.
You make photos, you make illustrations, you make videos, you make music. You derive artistic stimulus from all sources: from listening to music, from films, from dance, from exercise, from philosophy — from anything!
To develop to the fullest extent– grow more variegated. Consider a tree. You have a singular trunk, but your roots grow deeper into the soil, and your branches continue to multiply, and grow higher and higher (while growing wider).
Strive to master MANY artistic domains in life!
Furthermore, strive to engage all forms of knowledge. Science, art, humanities– it is all good!
All arts which inspire and stimulate you are good!
And above all; focus on artistic creation, and your own artistic productivity!
One of the best silicon-valley thought concepts is the idea of the ‘MVP’ (minimum viable product). It is anti-perfection. It is PRO-quick iteration, and just getting it out there!
I think if we all lived more ‘MVP’-minded, we would be more creatively productive, confident, and happier!
What is the motive force which induces us to photograph?
Some ideas:
Desire to immortalize a moment. Great joy and thanksgiving towards reality.
Desire to create visual art works. Photography as faster and more efficient than painting or drawing.
Desire to play. Photography as fun visual gymnastics if shapes, colors, forms, compositions. To photograph is like playing a musical instrument.
Desire to share our perspective and viewpoint with others. To signal and educate others what we consider beautiful. The photographer as the value judge of beauty.
Are you living your life in a way in which you suck out the marrow of reality? Where you deify existence, and being alive? Or are you living in a way simply to kill the time, and to live an existence as un-miserably as possible — waiting until you die?
If we envision the entrepreneur as someone who creates our of hyper-abundance and super-abundance, certainly the entrepreneur must be the ultimate GIVER!
Perhaps it is our evolutionary advantage that we delight in visual change. Visual change in landscapes, our environment, our fashion, our cars, our objects, and the visual art works we consume and create!
Something I’m very interested in: the intersection of photography, technology, entrepreneurship, and philosophy. I feel this is very fascinating ground which hasn’t (yet) been fully analyzed in detail.
Don’t be afraid of failure or hurting/injuring yourself. Instead, just focus on building your own strength and become strong enough to pursue great tasks and aims in your life.
Generally speaking, buying books will always be a better investment than buying photo gear (#buybooksnotgear).
But at times, I feel a bit conflicted about photo books. In some regards, I think photo books are over-rated. And some ways, photo books are underrated.
Let me use this essay as an opportunity to explicate some of my thoughts and personal philosophies on photo books:
Super enjoying the RICOH GR III; which gave me a thought:
Perhaps we should only ever purchase a camera which we can imagine using forever?
Of course nothing is meant to last forever. And of course digital photography is moving so quickly, that to never buy another digital camera ever again is also a foolish idea. If I plan on shooting photos until I’m 120 years old, I want new technologies in photography to be created!
But as photographers and creators, we need to love the cameras and tools we use. Keep experimenting with your equipment until you find a few tools you love, then stick with them! If you just feel “meh” about the tools or belongings you have, ditch them.
