Freedom
July 16, 2016
July 16, 2016
One of the things about photography that matter to me the most, is how it allows me to do whatever I want to, with no-one to answer for but myself. At work, I have tasks and responsibilities, but I’m not in charge of anything. Every choice and every decision I make, is part of a framework that isn’t mine. I don’t get to make the rules. And that’s fine. It's work. But I also need to do something that only I have a say in.
For the first time though, looking at the pictures I took home from the Alps, I feel that this freedom that I have, is seriously compromised by a lack of creativity. Not that I don’t like these pictures, but I feel that ‘consistency’ has become ‘repetition’. Even while shooting I was, at times, aware of the fact that I had done the same thing before, and probably better. And then I pushed the shutter anyway. Of course one can argue that ‘freedom’ includes the freedom to keep taking the same pictures over and over again, if you feel like it.
Every great author, or perhaps every artist, tells the same story over and over again. They use different narratives to communicate a message that is basically the same in each novel, thus enriching the theme and offering new perspectives. But I’m not a great artist, and I feel that I keep using the same narratives, without much of a story to tell.
For the first time though, looking at the pictures I took home from the Alps, I feel that this freedom that I have, is seriously compromised by a lack of creativity. Not that I don’t like these pictures, but I feel that ‘consistency’ has become ‘repetition’. Even while shooting I was, at times, aware of the fact that I had done the same thing before, and probably better. And then I pushed the shutter anyway. Of course one can argue that ‘freedom’ includes the freedom to keep taking the same pictures over and over again, if you feel like it.
Every great author, or perhaps every artist, tells the same story over and over again. They use different narratives to communicate a message that is basically the same in each novel, thus enriching the theme and offering new perspectives. But I’m not a great artist, and I feel that I keep using the same narratives, without much of a story to tell.
