"I don't even have an opinion" - Creative Failures?

I photographed several images in the city and was excited about their simplicity and to me, their beauty. I shared them with a friend and the reaction I received was, "What are they? I don't even have an opinion!"

The greatest teacher is the honest opinion-not that an opinion is right or wrong, it is just an opinion and art is absolutely a subjective endeavor. I shared these images on Instagram, very few likes and I assumed maybe that friend was right.

Slowly the likes and interest filtered in but to be honest, not every visual that excites the creative will do anything for the general public. It is the reason we are creative, we see things differently, that difference of view does not always relate to everyone and that is okay.

A Creative's Images Should be an Honest Study without Censor or Self-Critiquing

Unless we are working for a client, our art should serve our own purposes, an artist should not question or censor their own instinct. If you start questioning so much nuance and interest will be lost to the logical mind deciding that is not worth showing.

When I first started photographing, I took a week off work to photograph a city image for a client. After failing, getting up, failing again and finally getting the shot, I suddenly began seeing photography from a sales standpoint instead of the love of creativity. What followed was a long period of nothing of interest: I lost my eye for the subtle, the mundane.

"The greatest teacher is an honest opinion" ArtbyGordon

You can not please everyone and shooting with the idea of sales instead of enjoying how an image creates itself from nothing, the logical critic will always ruin everything. There was a also a period of time where I was looking for abstract objects because that was the photography I thought was more interesting.

My vision finally began to correct itself when I started seeing light or color instead of trying to make a dramatic abstract photo, I would see how the light modeled the object. When you walk in nature and seek photography subjects there is often a switch between what you see automatically and what you find.

The most beautiful image for me is often the most subtle. I visited Glacier, in the beginning of my career and I quickly learned how it is harder to shoot from such grandeur than a more simpler landscape off the beaten path. The grand landscape of Glacier was overwhelming, all the beauty had been captured and shared from many photographers and artists who were far ahead in their careers and expertise.

I have learned to find the image that is not so easily recognized. It makes you work for it and find the light or the color that turns the mundane into what the artist hopes is extraordinary. The beauty of this passion is not only is it constantly changing but every image is a new and fresh look at what we see every day. Delivering this to the viewer is our biggest challenge.

For an article on how words flow and how to get over writer's block- check out this article on my blog. Words and How they Develop