"Creativity is always enhanced by a constraint. This is true in filmmaking, music, painting, writing, and even photography."
Wish that I could adequately convey just how compelling I find C.J. Chilvers' manifesto, one espousing that less, photographically-speaking, is more. Read it. It's free. It takes seconds to download and if we substitute the word photography for almost any creative pursuit one could care to imagine, it has a freeing, lasting resonance.
Loading up the Holga with a roll of black and white tonight. Constraint is good.
I was sure this would be about food - Cindy and I have become better and more creative in the kitchen since regularly cooking for vegans/coeliacs.
Posted by: Michael | October 12, 2011 at 08:39 PM
michael: it is! and it can be. it's one of those beautiful, simple truths that bears repeating over and over. i love those cooking constraints. they really do make us better. imagine being someone who looks upon the vegan guest as a burden? far, far better to embrace those constraints, to show what you can do rather than can't.
Posted by: Lucy | October 12, 2011 at 08:48 PM
I will read it. Seems more or less like the original idea of the Dogma 95-manifesto though.
Posted by: Einar | October 13, 2011 at 06:14 AM
ah, i'm not familiar with that...off to google it, thank you.
Posted by: Lucy | October 13, 2011 at 07:27 AM
"A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the worth of a great story is incalculable". I like it.
Posted by: Jessica | October 13, 2011 at 08:21 AM
yes, jess! and the stuff about not needing a portfolio, i liked, too. our blogs are our portfolios, no? this speaks to almost everyone:
" Editing is the skill that separates the decent [insert creative pursuit of choice] from the great...Be liberal with your use of the trash. It's your friend."
editing is as hard-won a skill as any, i say. x
Posted by: Lucy | October 13, 2011 at 09:02 AM
It is indeed - I wonder how many blogs I have deleted from my RSS feed as a result of poor (photographic & written) editing. I'd rather see one brilliant picture/read one well written paragraph than scroll down endlessly any day.
I'm looking forward to seeing some b&w here, Lucy!
Posted by: Jessica | October 13, 2011 at 08:17 PM
Pictures can sometimes say more than words ever could
Posted by: nutrition | October 13, 2011 at 10:41 PM
Yes! ""Creativity is always enhanced by a constraint..." Couldn't agree more this evening.
Posted by: Gracia | October 14, 2011 at 08:06 PM
Oh yes. I've never been a gear lover, and I've experimented, especially during school, with just about every tool imaginable. I believe the best photographs are much more about the eye of the photographer than the gear they are using. I do have a sentimental attachment to my father's old SLR, but that's a different sort of love.
Posted by: Denise | Chez Danisse | October 25, 2011 at 03:20 AM
i am digging on constraint these days.
very much.
it is becoming a creative channel through which my energy can really do things.
Posted by: alison | October 30, 2011 at 10:36 AM