Creative block - how do you deal with it?

Did you know Ernst Haas preferred to shoot in heavy overcast? He really liked the color saturation just after it rained. The color is more intense. So to some overcast isn't boring light at all.
 
I change my gear... literally. I took a newly purchased Ricoh GR and dusted off the Holga for a recent trip to Hawaii. Seeing through these different apparatus certainly changes things. And not fretting on what gear to take, its limitations, its image quality and actually snapping away helps get me out of a rut. I find I stagnate when I think about the camera or the photos and to just start seeing again breaks me out of it.

Or maybe it was the trip to a warm and foreign land.

Oh, and I also spent an afternoon framing photos taken over the last 6 months. Seeing things in a frame helps me gain satisfaction from my efforts. In turn, provides that good feeling that gets me out the door.
 
When I first started with photography, Ernst Haas' book, "The Creation", was one of the few available photobooks at my public library. I remember him saying that somewhere Allen.

Thanks Segedi. I know it well also.
 
Leave it.

Either it comes back or it doesn't. If it's really important it will: if it isn't, it may not.

Either way, why worry? Read a book; waste time on the internet; fix some stuff that needs fixing. I just fixed my orange juicer. The only way to justify defining yourself by what you do is if you can't stop doing it for long.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Leave it.

Either it comes back or it doesn't. If it's really important it will: if it isn't, it may not.

Either way, why worry? Read a book; waste time on the internet; fix some stuff that needs fixing. I just fixed my orange juicer. The only way to justify defining yourself by what you do is if you can't stop doing it for long.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

I like that, Roger!
 
kbg32 said:
I believe the part of my "block" has to do with a presentation of my work I am to give in a month's time. An overview to the present. In putting together the presentation, I am facing certain personal issues from my past that I had dealt with at various times within my work. To give a proper presentation, I have to somehow speak of these issues which are painful. It is only the recent past that I finally figured out what certain things meant. As well, I need to continue with my work. Unfortunately, history can't be ignored.
Click to expand...

Let Rob the ol' mental health counselor weigh in here. Clients with painful old baggage from the past often find it healing to speak about those issues to a group, or while giving a presentation. If you tell the audience it is difficult, they will respect that. In fact, they will envy your courage. It's nota creative block; the block is the association with the old baggage. Talk it over with a counselor first, if you like. I'd recommend that. Consider a counselor who uses EMDR. Or do a rehearsal with someone you trust. Then go ahead and give your presentation. I believe it will go very well, you will be relieved, and feel you have been freed from a burden.
 
Is it possible to cultivate inspiration? If inspiration can be cultivated then that will be the end of 'creative block'.

A writer who sits with a blank page or a painter who sits with a blank canvas or a sculptor who is looking at a block of rock, their problem is using their imagination to shape 'nothing' into something. A photographer does not have the same problem. The photographer does not have to fill 'nothing' with his imagination, his dealing with a world that is full of potential and all he has to do is point the camera and capture a part of the world. So why is it that photographers also experience 'creative block'?

In my own experience, whenever I have gone with a preconceived idea of what I should photograph, I have hit a creative block... For example I'll try to photograph a part of the city that has never given me any interesting photos, and I'll think 'it should'... I go there and I see no photos. Its as if by not listening to my own intuition and trying to force it, I hit a creative block.

I'd say the first step in dealing with creative block in photography is to free oneself from 'I must', 'I should'. If you don't feel like taking photos then don't. Wait and see what happens.
 
I have found that in most cases "block" is not a lack of ideas - but rather the result of trying to make oneself do something when something else is really more interesting to them.

When I was illustrating this was particularly frustrating. I had to draw X, but what I really wanted to draw was Y. And until I just gave in and drew Y I was "blocked" and couldn't get much work done on X. My advice now is that if you really want to make something - you should go make it, even if you feel that some other something is more important. Because otherwise you'll just keep putting off what you need to do because you haven't gone ahead and done what you want to do. But once it is out of your system, or at least you've sort of satisfied your want for the time being - you can go on and do whatever work is needed.

When other illustrators ask me about block I just tell them to go ahead and sketch out whatever it is they really want to draw and then go back to "work" - it usually solves the problem. At least for a little while. I don't see that photography would be much different, except that sometimes fulfilling the want can be more difficult for practical reasons.
 
Most of the time, if I can think about it, I find that putting things aside, take a break, do something else, watch the three stooges, then vome back and things can look different and start to happen.
 
What I've been doing is very similar to what Helen does - reading, writing, listening to music, thinking (and not), and just submerging myself in work. Working through this "hiccup". I'm still somewhat in a strange place, but feeling ok with the discomfort.
 
tunalegs said:
I have found that in most cases "block" is not a lack of ideas - but rather the result of trying to make oneself do something when something else is really more interesting to them.

When I was illustrating this was particularly frustrating. I had to draw X, but what I really wanted to draw was Y. And until I just gave in and drew Y I was "blocked" and couldn't get much work done on X. My advice now is that if you really want to make something - you should go make it, even if you feel that some other something is more important. Because otherwise you'll just keep putting off what you need to do because you haven't gone ahead and done what you want to do. But once it is out of your system, or at least you've sort of satisfied your want for the time being - you can go on and do whatever work is needed.

When other illustrators ask me about block I just tell them to go ahead and sketch out whatever it is they really want to draw and then go back to "work" - it usually solves the problem. At least for a little while. I don't see that photography would be much different, except that sometimes fulfilling the want can be more difficult for practical reasons.
Click to expand...

Tuna, I think some of the frustration is wanting to bring about some sort of a change, a breakthrough, and realizing, knowing very well, it doesn't come overnight.
 
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