Have you ever had a creative block? I’m not talking about one morning you can’t think of anything to photograph, but a block that can last weeks or months and you just can’t seem to find a way out of it. I’m sure we’ve all been there, I find that during times when life gets complicated it can be very difficult to keep creative momentum.
Of course, that’s frustrating, but what if you’re travelling specifically to take photos and you just can’t come up with anything good? Then it’s particularly annoying. Photographer Tatiana Hopper uses the words and works of other great photographers to help her overcome this, and she shares these thoughts in this excellent video.
Tatiana gets inspiration from Luigi Ghirri, a photographer who proposed the concept of thinking through images. Creating a thought or emotion and interpreting it via photography can help you break out of those creative blocks.
Tatiana asked herself, “What was it that I’m looking for, and what is it that I see or feel about this landscape?”
After thinking about this, Tatiana was able to clarify that she felt a strong sense of nostalgia and decided to make that the primary focus of her images.
Of course, this intentionality is nothing new. You could argue that we should all be doing this before we even pick up the camera. Except that it is so easy to skip this practice and just amble along taking snapshots, which leaves us feeling disappointed.
I will definitely start trying to do this exercise more, as I try to evoke different moods and emotions when taking photos. It’s not enough to take a technically perfect or pretty photograph any more. We need to be intentional, have something to say, and convey that effectively.
