I've been thinking a lot about creativity lately. I am interested in the idea that we can hone our view... we can take what life deals us and color it.
We are creative beings... all of us. It is uniquely human to create; that is to express what is within us in a way unique to our perspective. We are innately drawn to a form or style of art that expresses each one of us. And renissance men and women are there to make us all feel inadequate... haha
I use many mediums for my creative outlet, but my favorite perhaps is photography, because of how beautiful and selective it is. You can choose what you wish to see, first in camera and then you get a second shot at it in editing.
First, choose your subject, check your settings, and then SNAP! you have an image. Now, the fun begins. You have already chosen what you wish to see...with or without the messiness that is life. And in the process you have chosen your tone. Your voice is primary to all other elements(true in all forms of art). Is it your intention to show your world as one filled with beautiful things and butterfly wings, or is it your desire to temper that sweetness with the sobering reality of truth. A camera cannot lie. It only records what you show it. As a journalist of life (if that is what you have chosen) it is your job to show life in all of its complicated ugliness, the beauty of a single small flower growning in the midst of a war zone or a mother loving her child in a time of famine. But as an artist (if that is what you have chosen), you get to choose to manipulate what you see until it speaks with your voice.
In fact, it is your job as a photographer is to control the chaos. Your pictures tell your story, and you must be very clear about the details of that story because, as you know... a picture is worth a thousand words, and if you leave too much ambiguity then who knows which thousand someone else will impose on your story. Be clear - edit. Be nothing if not intentional.
My favorite part of photography is perhaps the editing process. You have a beautiful image and a world of possibilities for what you can achieve with it. You can brighten it up and make it warmer and fuzzier or cool it down... it's all up to you. You can create your reality - only prettier (or softer, sharper or in black & white...)!
Life is full of ugly, messy, crude and rough details. When the ugliness of life threatens to overwhelm me, I am comforted by the thought that I can create what I choose to focus on. (literally and metephorically) I am the artist of my life... I am at once documenting it and manipulating it, but always creating. Forming what it is that I will choose to remember from this moment in time.
Beauty helps me to move forward, beyond the messy events and rough patches. With creativity we can take out all of the messy details and highlight the interesting and funny parts or embrace the ugly,the harmful and the injust- so as to not recreate it.
We are always choosing our focus. Constantly editing.
It is only when we have set our intention that we can make sense of what we see.
Then we have something we can build on.
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