WHAT INSPIRES VISUALLY CREATIVE TYPES?
With Matt off to the US this week, I’m already looking forward to the images he’ll bring back.
This has led my non-creative brain to ponder where visually creative people generally find their inspiration. Is it from things they see – or do they draw on their other senses too, or other things entirely –
and does it matter?
Some people believe that different colours represent different emotions and that any “mood” created through music, poems, literature etc
can be translated visually and would influence photographical expressions. I wonder if this is only if the photographer is aware of the theory – or if it still works on a subconscious level if not.
I imagine that past visual experiences probably come to mind when creating an image. And many photographers seem to quote ‘life’ as their inspiration. Pretty indisputable I guess – Wilde’s “life imitates art far more than art imitates life” springs to mind.
Many arty types are synesthetes to some degree and can cross-reference their senses – sadly the colour orange doesn’t sound like anything to me!
One photographer noted that for her, smells are truly inspiring in her work. Another chap declares that he is inspired by ‘nothing’, which seems crazy before he goes on to explain that he meditates before going out to capture nature photographs and by clearing his mind he notices more and reacts more spontaneously.
This same person still finds that music goes round in his mind – this seems to affect us all, maybe some of us just don’t use it for anything!
On a limb here – I think Matt’s inspiration often comes from just being somewhere and soaking it up - getting to know the place or the people he’s with.
I was reading about a photographer recently (Alan Babbit) who has Parkinson’s and found he had ‘lost his muse’ when he was diagnosed. He went on to have a “Eureka!” moment and from then said he used his ‘shakes’ to explore a new and different approach to his art.
So perhaps it doesn’t matter how they are inspired, just as long as they are.
