The Creative Process is a Messy Business
We looked at each other in confusion. We pushed and prodded at packets of herbs and spices. There we stood, unproductive, with nothing to show for the time we were giving to photographing this food.
It didn’t feel like work. Standing and talking whilst playing with the herbs and spices, standing jars up, laying them down, scattering chillis across the surface, dropping spoonfuls of cinnamon in strategic places, in front of the camera. It felt like play, because that’s what we were doing, we were playing with the objects which needed to be photographed, toying with them and meanwhile being paid for the privilege.
Photography is often like that. The finer points of a shoot, the ones which make it unique, come from a new, fresh way of doing things. If you wonder how I come up with these ideas, it’s through play, it’s by saying “what if” or “yes and” to every idea that comes into my head, then trying it, without fear, to see how it looks.
Some ideas look awful. The moment the shutter goes down on the camera, I know that it’s a misfire, one that will never be selected, yet, handling rejection is part of the process. Another idea ousted from my mind, cleared from my neural pathways, ready for the next to slide into its place.
Creativity looks like a mess, because it is a mess, both inside my mind and…
