 There is a fantastic channel called The Art Assignment and on there there's a video called The Myth of the Tortured Artist where the host Sarah talks about how this idea that we have that all creative people are somehow mentally unstable that to be really creative you need to have some sort of problem going on is just that it is a myth but there is I think a curse in creativity that often affects a far broader spectrum of people that never really gets talked about how's it how's it yeah so you know that the idea of you know the the the vango type figure up in a garret you know cutting their ear off and and that having to be if you want to be a real creative person that's what you need to have some medley unhinged somehow is yeah it's a trope that's been built up over time and it makes for a neat movie and you know that kind of stuff but it kind of glosses over something that I've certainly struggled with in the past and when I talk to other photographers and other people who are into creative aspects especially people who are for whom this is a hobby it's a it's a it's a theme that surfs is again and again trying to get the idea from up here inside this gray thing and the sloshes around the side of the heads into a form we can share with other people it's that struggle that is so often the problem because you know you've got something up here it's there and yet how do you get it out when you look at creativity if it's trying to be often you know sort of compartmentalized or you know put into a process a if you kind of look at these things about what exactly creativity is it kind of makes you feel less creative and and so kind of we go to the opposite spectrum the chaos that the creativity is built from chaos and all these things going around and it's it's the job of the creative person to wrestle these elements you know to beat them into submission and and make something unique okay that's kind of cool it looks you know it's appealing to to the 20 something hard student but for most of us that's a little bit beyond there and I look at somebody like Ansel Adams and he strikes me as somebody who's very organized very deliberate and yet he is creative he was well known as a as a very competent piano player he was well versed in music and always kind of very again you know set up the creative outlets that had a system you know music has written music and form you know those kind of things and you I could see why he's the sort of person who would develop the zone system the whole process of taking photographs because he wants to make that creative process repeatable to be able to get this idea that he has in his head that visualization of the scene in front of him how to expose it correctly how to you know make sure that the tones rule there and he's got the the negative which is then processed in a very specific way often these were just individual sheets of film so they could be processed individually you know so you can have this one for five minutes and that one's for six minutes and so on and so forth and then printed in in a way that again you know is to a system that worked through and so the whole process of creativity for for Ansel sort of was there on a series of steps and if that works for for you then I would encourage you to to look at the the zone system and Ansel's you know approach to photography as a way of being able to grease the wheels as it were but what if you're a little bit more like me what if you want to be a little bit more out there on the edge do you prefer to kind of embrace that chaos of of creativity a little bit more dianne arbis was a very well-known photographer in the 1970s and there's been lots of like written about her photography about you know is she looking for herself because her struggles her mental struggles have been well documented and ultimately ended up taking a life and there's another photographer I've touched on in the past bob collis clark who also struggled with these kind of themes and if you're interested in him I'll link to it at the end of the video where I did a bit more in depth but dianne was photographing things and or people sorry they're not things they're people who are somehow I think she's you know she's maybe trying to find a place that that kind of resonates with her and and so she's leaning into that feeling of of maybe displacement of you know of being not part not fitting into society you're properly and if you have sort of ideas of this nature that you kind of go do you know what I I feel odd with with say modern world and you know or I just I really like you know aloneness or solitude I find solitude I personally find being in a city in a busy crowded street one of the most quiet and just spectacled quiet places because I feel like I am now just a cipher on there and I can relax and so if you if you are able to channel into those feelings and to put those ideas into your photography then that's a way of kind of you know embracing a little bit of that chaos but how do you make sure to actually make that leap from what's up here into that that finished image that you can share with people at the end of September I'm going to be starting the second iteration of the cohort creative photo mastery and this is a few weeks where we really in a small group talk about the processes of making that leap from you know what's really up here what was our true voice in photography into these images that we're proud of that we love this feel like the a real expression of our photographic you know joy if you'd like to join me on this cohort which is limited to just 10 people the waitlist is open right now there's a link in the description box below here on the channel I don't really talk about gear techniques stuff like that too much because it's not really the focus but one of the great I think issues that people struggle with in getting these images from your head into the final thing is possibly a lack of technical know-how right you got the idea but how do you translate it and so in this regard I would suggest that you know much like Ansel Adams you he he systemized the whole thing that he knew exactly what he was doing that you take a leaf from these books modern cameras I have so many bells and whistles back focus this focus da da da da right back focusing and you know pixel pee-pee and all that sort of stuff is not really teaching you to use your equipment in a way that maximizes its potential I think that's the main thing if you look at all the photographers in fact most of the photographers who are featured on this channel they worked with cameras that were considerably by orders of magnitude more basic than the one that you have even on your phone so you know learn to use your equipment learn about its limitations what you can do with it what you can't do what lenses are going to you know create a feeling that you want to you know to give the viewer that goes so far into you know making that flow from from brain to image so much easier so once you've got that flow of this image going back and forth then you sort of go okay right I don't need to think about the technical aspects of things anymore now I can fully embrace expressing creativeness because you kind of pushed all that stuff to one side but where do you get that creativeness where do you how do you start working on on bringing that through I remember when Pinterest was was first you know first launched and I was waiting for a different time and was all talking about how to how to use how are we going to use this new tool of Pinterest and I was kind of like well what is this you know this seems like it's just it's a place for people who are into scrapbooking to post pictures of their scrapbooks you know it felt like it was it felt like it was a digital scrapbook which in many ways it is but it is there is a far greater more hidden kind of benefit to using Pinterest and that is something I used to love to do with with music I would go on Amazon and people say ah you know if you like this band this is what other people have bought and you could use that as a way of you know finding in this you know Roxy music leads into Genesis and so on and so forth and you could do this with photography and you go onto Pinterest and you go to look okay so I like photography I like Anton Corbane so I would look at Anton Corbane and I would start to suggest other photographers images or I could go do you know I'm going to look at I have in my head an idea to photograph solitude okay so how do I what what of other people how they approach that thing so I can I can do photos of solitude or just put solitude in and see what comes back to find ideas and then curate those ideas into a board of Pinterest and it gives me a starting point that I go do you know okay I like this I don't quite like that what have you when you start adding all these bits together then you start to kind of go again a bit of a clearer picture about how you might want to express solitude whatever kind of feeling that you'd like to get in your photographs it's a wonderful expression of being able to you know get a little bit of support because again you know we need we need to put we work best I find if we create people when we can bounce ideas off of other people and Pinterest although be it is a one-way bouncing of ideas at least you're getting a step ahead you're going along you're finding new avenues and directions of course with cohorts and stuff you've got the people there all the time and I have to say I love the you know the interaction that goes on not just between me and and everybody there but between the students as well you know it's been fantastic to see I really hope you could join me but if you are struggling with this idea this cursor creativity that you you feel creative you know because if you can create something up in your in your brain then that you're creative right you don't need to be some sort of tortured man like oh my I can't deal with that I just I need to be alone you know if you if that sort of thing we've got if you're if you're making up ideas in your head then that's that's you being creative just learn the basics of photography get that stuff down cold get ideas about way how you can express it and and use those technical chops that you've now built up to look at what the photographer is doing of the pictures that you like and analyze it pill it apart why have they done this how have they done that how they're going to get this how am I going to do it when you do that you make that curse is like it's lifted like magic spell goes away now earlier I talked about a photographer who I think is outstanding his work was was something that I certainly resonate with me a lot when I was younger and his name is bob collis clock to find out the and it is a very sad story about him check out this video over here thank you ever so much for watching and I will see you again soon