Follow Your Own Creative Pathway
Developing as a photographer is no different to many aspects of life, in that we start from a point of either having no knowledge or at best possess limited knowledge of a subject. How we develop thereafter as an individual is very much down to each of our own personal traits and ambitions. Recently I have had several message exchanges with people about my work and a common statement I hear is “I don’t know how to create the images you share, as I wouldn’t know where to start”. Normally my response is “We all have to start from somewhere, so identify what you do know and move forward from there”
For me, my creative journey has been no different and it has only been in the last few years that I have started out on my own pathway as up until then my photography knowledge was limited to more or less knowing how to turn my camera on and off, shoot everything in jpeg with the camera in full auto mode and no editing of the resultant images. The world of raw files, manual settings and post processing were alien to me prior to becoming aware how much potential I was missing out on.
My awakening happened in Mexico of all places as I had sold my Canon 750d and bought a Canon 5D Mark II. To pass some time on holiday I started to search online for info about using my first full frame camera and that is when I discovered the wonderful work of Thomas Heaton and from that point I was gripped and began watching all his videos during the rest of my holiday and was in awe of his skill, creativity and the resultant final images.
From that time in Mexico, the desire to push myself to develop as a photographer and to create better images intensified along with my interest to seek out the work of other photographers to gain a better understanding of the creative process. Over these past few years my creative journey has been a hybrid of self-education and investment into the teachings from others who I have discovered and have used this combined learning to assist me along the next leg of my journey.
When I first started out down the route of black and white fine art architecture genre, I started to see some initial results in my work but felt they still lacked something as by this time, I had come across other photographers whose work I found to be inspiring, so I could readily see how far I had to go in terms of improvement. To begin with, on one hand seeing the work of others was fantastic but on the other, it resulted in me questioning my abilities and whether I had reached the limit in terms of what I could achieve.
One such person whose work I discovered in the early stages of my development was Pamela Aminou, a fine art photographer based in London. Pamela subsequently published an E-book ‘Principles of Fine Art Photography’. Reading this book, made me think about what I wanted to achieve and concluded I was perhaps going down the road of emulation which could stifle my own creative identity as I was at risk of not following my own light but that of others. I knew at this point, I now needed to follow my own light in order to flourish in my own right.
Reflecting on my career within the Fire and Rescue Service, I concluded my professional pathway had similar characteristics to my current artistic pathway. Joining the Fire Brigade as it was back then in 1989, I started from a point of having no knowledge about being a firefighter but through a process of learning and being guided by experienced individuals, I grew into the role. Over the course of 30 years, I carved out my career and built up my own reputation. As a result, my colleagues and peers came to know me for who I was and the standards I established in relation to my work.
There is nothing wrong in learning from the experiences of others to help you understand and develop but there comes a point where you need to establish your own identity and your own style. A common mistake is put down your own work by comparing it to the work of others, which if left unchecked will have a negative effect on your own creative development and the establishment of your own style.
For anyone asking me for advice about their personal development, I normally suggest they focus on what they want achieve and break their development into component parts and be patient, as progress will be seen over a period of time when they look back and reflect on their work.
Recently I have had some reassurances from others who have commented that on seeing my images, they knew it was my work before seeing my name as they recognised my style. Within the context of my photography, I feel more at ease now with my development to date and comments such as these reaffirm, I am on my own creative pathway and following my own light.