{"id":122002,"date":"2018-12-13T18:15:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T02:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=122002"},"modified":"2018-12-13T18:15:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T02:15:37","slug":"never-stay-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/13\/never-stay-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Stay the Same"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is it that in modern society, to be ‘consistent’ is seen as good, and to be a ‘flip flopper’ is seen as such a negative trait?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We love the predictable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is my theory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People want you to be consistent, so you can be predictable. This is because unpredictable people are scary.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Why is contradicting yourself seen as so bad?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In modern society, to contradict yourself is seen as one of the worst ills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it is because we are uncomfortable with change? We don’t like chaos and uncertainty. When things change too much and stir up the status quo; we somehow feel uncertain of ourselves, and scared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

What would a life look like if you never contradicted yourself, and always stayed the same?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let us consider the life of an individual who never contradicted themselves, and always stayed the same. But from which age forth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us assume that the age of an adult is 21 years old. Imagine: would it be good if your opinions as a 21 year old stayed consistent throughout your whole life until you died at age 120? Of course not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Never stay the same as a photographer\/visual-artist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As an artist, imagine if your aesthetic style stayed consistent until you died. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, imagine that Picasso<\/a> never evolved into doing his cubist-styled paintings. He would have never made an impact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine if Richard Avedon<\/a> only shot with a Rolleiflex his whole life, and never allowed himself to evolve to shoot large-format 8×10 portraits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always change.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My conclusion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As artists, we must allow ourselves to evolve and change. To stay ‘consistent’ is undesirable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Get lost in the eternal stream of becoming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\""Piano<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, we must learn to see contradiction as a good thing. Because too often, we let the fear of contradiction hold us back from evolving and changing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, of course my opinions on photography from 2010 until 2018 have changed! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, there is no ultimate ‘truth’ in wisdom or knowledge. Thus, perhaps the most wise person must also be the most contradictory person?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Love the change and chaos!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Sparking<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Allow yourself to be random, chaotic, and messy. Don’t strive to stay the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\""Elegance"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Also perhaps, don’t strive for too much consistency in your photography. I still prefer that certain<\/em> photography projects have a consistent aesthetic and look, but allow your aesthetic style to change, evolve, and grow over your lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Together<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Never stay the same!
ERIC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is it that in modern society, to be ‘consistent’ is seen as good, and to be a ‘flip flopper’ is seen as such a negative trait?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Korea-The-Presentation-of-Self-8-scaled.jpg?fit=3312%2C2256&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122003,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122002\/revisions\/122003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}