Unit Eight : Inspiration
Inspiration for this photo came from Terry Gilliam’s 'Brazil.'Finding Inspiration
Inspiration can come from any source. We tend to zero in on inspiration from our own medium, but that can be limiting, and has the potential to lead to recreation as opposed to inspiration. For this lesson, we’re going to ask you to search for inspiration outside of photography. To get started, ask yourself some questions:
What am I passionate about?
What brings me joy?
What challenges my way of thinking?
How can I explore something outside of my comfort zone?
Where do I want to go from here?
Passion and Joy
Reflect on activities, hobbies, or causes that ignite a sense of passion and joy within you. Consider how these passions can be translated into visual storytelling or thematic concepts in your photography. Explore themes such as adventure, love, sustainability, creativity, or cultural diversity inspired by your passions.
Challenging Perspectives
Identify topics, experiences, or conversations that challenge your way of thinking or provoke introspection. Use photography as a tool to explore these complex ideas, emotions, or social issues visually. Experiment with conceptual photography, symbolism, or metaphorical imagery to convey layers of meaning.
Embracing Diversity in Your Work
Embrace diversity in all its forms—cultural, social, natural, and human diversity. Seek inspiration from diverse cultures, traditions, landscapes, and perspectives to enrich your photographic storytelling. By exploring ideas outside your norm, you’ll be forced to engage in other perspectives which will spark supporting our counter-views. Use your photography as an outlet to those thoughts.
Personal Growth and Reflection
Engage in self-reflection and introspection to uncover personal growth, struggles, triumphs, or transformative experiences. Use photography as a tool for self-expression, healing, empowerment, or storytelling related to your personal journey. Capture moments of vulnerability, resilience, authenticity, and self-discovery to create evocative and meaningful photographic narratives.
Artistic Cross-Pollination
Now that you have started to think about what inspires you, and how to incorporate it into your own work, it’s time to search out other media to challenge your ideas. Depending on what you are focusing on, different media will support you - traditional media, for example, is an excellent way to study composition and color theory. If you’re a sports photographer, study human movement through dance. A landscape photographer can find inspiration in descriptive writings.
Listening to music while on the streets can set the mood and allow you to notice scenes you may have otherwise missed.
It’s easy to be told to “go be inspired!” and then scour instagram for cool photos. We’re asking you to challenge yourself a little more. Find inspiration outside what the algorithms put in front of you.