Motivational Photo Thoughts
How you can become the best photographer:
Optimal, optimus means “the best”. I like the American idea —
Be all you can be.
In photography,
Become the best photographer you can become.
In my vlog on becoming a photographer, my belief:
Your life task goal is to become the best photographer you can possibly become.
This is done independently of others. Their opinions, metrics, likes comments follows, etc.
Comparison is the death of creativity and motivation in photography and life. By comparing yourself, your kids, your art, photos etc with others you are saying and doing:
In order to judge the worth of this, I must benchmark it against something else external of my control.
For photography, why judge it against anyone else?
For example, it seems most photographers judge their worth in respect to Henri Cartier-Bresson. All the Magnum photographers have thus far lived in the shadow of grandfather Henri Cartier-Bresson.
However, the reason why this is such a bad approach is that even Henri Cartier-Bresson himself give up photography. Why? My theory is that he had hidden penis envy of his other painter artist friends; he secretly wanted to be a painter, not a photographer. Ultimately, he even deemed photography as not a “legit“ art form, that photography was simply a precursor to drawing and painting. Therefore, in order to advance, we must kill our masters.
Also, the reason why I think it is so bad to find inspiration from any other artist, either dead or living is this:
Besides perhaps Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, all artists of the past or present seem to have low self-confidence.
For example, I believe the artists during the renaissance didn’t even see themselves as “artists”. They simply did what they felt they must do.
For example, painting seem to have been more of a side hobby for Leonardo Vinci than anything. He seem to be more interested in human anatomy and physiology, mechanics, engineering, etc. He was a fully formed man.
Even Michelangelo; he seem to be driven by extremes. Note the Sistine chapel, and his great sculpture.
Perhaps in order to advance, you shouldn’t classify yourself as anything. Maybe not even a visual artist.
Why? When you classify yourself, you chain
