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HOTOGRAPHYIS ACREATIVEENDEAVOUR
and,overtheyearsof indulgingin thispursuit
professionally and personally, I’ve had times when
I’ve felt thoroughly demotivated with the entire
art form. Of course, if I’m on a commission I have
little choice but to push through, but during these
times my personal work tends to diminish, and I can end up
feeling creatively unfulfilled and frustrated at my lack of
engagement. These moments can strike at any given time,
but often they tend to coincide
with times of the year that hold
le ss of my interest, such as weeks
of rain or – even worse – weeksof
wall-to-wall sunshine!
I’ve also found that I can’t
force myself out of these creative
tr oughs and they dissipate in their
own time, but there are certain
things I can do to ensure that thedipsin my creativityare
fo llowed by a productive peak.Onesuchthingis to spendless
ti me on social media. It can behardto fosteryourownsenseof
in dividuality and creativity at the best of times, but with social
media it becomes easy to fall down the rabbit hole of other
people’s work. It can offer inspiration and help to propel your
own work, but it can also serve to demotivate, as social media
tends to demonstrate the final product and rarely provides a
space to perceive all the hard work, preparation and (in some
cases) luck that went into creating a particular image. Social
media allows you to dip into other people’s worlds, but all you
see is the tip of the iceberg and it’s easy to forget that all
creatives suffer self-doubt at some point in their endeavours.
Another way to boost your productivity is to downsize,
literally and metaphorically. Often, I’ll carry with me a tonne
ofkit – twocamerabodies,threelenses,tripod and filters.
Thatcanseemoverwhelmingwhenfacedwith going out on
a landscape shoot, especially if it involves anything remotely
uphill. Sometimes I just want to have a bit more freedom from
the expectations of carrying so much kit, and the idea I have in
my head about the conditions or compositions I might be able
to create. For times like this I have a little Sony RX100 MkV or
even just my mobile phone. These give me the freedom to get
closer to the landscape without the weight of expectation, which
does wonders for my creativity.
If you find your creativity waning,
try stepping out of your comfort zone.
Creatives, by nature, are hyperaware
of their surroundings and their
responses to the world, and if you’ve
been photographing the same type
of subject matter for a long time
it can lose its appeal. When this
happens,I liketo switchup the genre I work in and try out
somethingdifferent,suchas bird photography in my local
park,or swappingrurallandscapes for intricate urban scenes.
Challenging myself in this way helps to reinvigorate my sense
of artistic identity and create work that I find satisfying.
Creativity is finite and the demands of our content-driven
environment can quickly deplete our internal resources. Learn
to embrace this downtime, knowing that it’ll have a restorative
and rejuvenating impact on the creativity yet to come.
EMBRACE DOWNTIME,
KNOWING IT’LL HAVE A
REJUVENATING IMPACT
ON YOUR CREATIVITY
VERITY MILLIGAN
ADVENTURES OF A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER THE CREATIVITY CYCLE
Verity Milligan is an award-winning landscape, architectural
and commercial photographer based in Birmingham. She
runs workshops and her clients include American Express,
Yorkshire Tea & Visit Britain. veritymilliganphotography.com
