10 Inspiring Photography Tips

My friend Clare asked me to write something to encourage people to take photographs creatively. I came up with some tips, and it has been published at MyVillage. Or you can read it below:

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Getting Started
The hardest task is getting started. One of the first things you should bear in mind is that not every photograph you take needs to be perfect – it’s the act of working and taking photographs that’s most important. This attitude isn’t specific to photography of course; it’s a good tactic for most creative disciplines. Master painters for example can make hundreds of sketches, but only a few develop into completed paintings. For my last exhibition I must have taken 70+ photographs, and I ended up presenting 3 in the final show. The process of making work in itself generates new work and new ideas, and developing a critical eye for your own work, knowing what is strong and what is not so strong, is something that only comes with practice.

On a budget
Don’t think that you need to spend a lot before you can start taking interesting photographs; you really don’t. My current favourite camera is an old Minolta folding that as far as I can work out was made in 1937, and I bought it on eBay for the princely sum of fourteen English pounds. If using manual/antique cameras feels a bit daunting there are plenty of reasonably priced point-and-shoot digital cameras around. They might not be able to do the fanciest of things, but the most crucial aspects of a good photograph are good lighting and good composition; both of which are most definitely achievable with the cheapest of digicams. But don’t be wary of using and experimenting with film – there are places around where film can be bought and processed for a reasonable price even now, if you’re willing to hunt a bit. Silverprint near Waterloo do a discount if you buy 10 films or more at a time (and that shop in general is an absolute goldmine for those into analogue photography).

If you’re feeling really brave you could always learn how to process your own film and make your own prints; I’ve been processing my own black and white film in my bathroom for years, and a few months ago successfully built a darkroom in my flat with second hand equipment probably not worth more than £200 all told. But if you’re after something less fiddly there’s nothing like the charm of old disposable cameras. A friend of mine shot her entire final project for her degree on disposable cameras and the photographs were utterly wonderful!

The “Happy Accident”
Don’t be afraid of the “happy accident”. If you’re not sure something will work... try it anyway! You might surprise yourself, and if it doesn’t work at least you’ve tried it and you can learn from it. One of the reasons I personally prefer to use film to digital (as a general rule) is that anything experimental requires a far larger leap of faith. You cannot see the result straight away, so you can’t just keep re-doing it indefinitely until the image is what you want. This is also part of the charm of antique or toy cameras for many people; by giving up part of the creative process to chance you’re far more likely to create something unexpectedly beautiful.

Challenge yourself
When you can see endless possibilities of what you could be doing, it becomes harder to narrow your focus and actually do something. Set yourself tasks, rules, make taking photographs part of your routine. The 365 project is a challenge to take a photograph every single day for an entire year, and it’s astonishing what some people come up with! Pick an arbitrary subject and do a project that revolves around that. A couple of years ago I spent a month taking instant photographs of the sky, meticulously labelling them with the time and date, and the very process of making work again sparked off all sorts of other ideas. In the 1950s a group of American beat poets in Paris took an entire series of photographs of themselves that all had to include a nun in some way. Set rules for yourself; it’s often far more productive and interesting to work against and around restrictions than if you have no limitations.

Think beyond the camera
There is a long tradition of camera-less photography (in fact there is an exhibition on that very subject on at the V&A right now); you can do all sorts of things with photographic processes that don’t involve conventional cameras. Pinhole cameras can be fashioned from almost anything, so long as you light-proof it. I went to university with someone who made pinhole cameras out of Lego, tin-cans, and on one memorable occasion, a potato! I once came across an artist that was using her own mouth as a camera – placing a small sheet of photographic paper in there and opening wide when she wanted to expose it. You can create photograms by placing objects on photographic paper and exposing it to light; a technique was made famous in the 1920s by surrealist photographer Man Ray, among others. Photography doesn’t necessarily require a camera.

A photograph doesn’t have to just be a photograph
Another reason why I prefer working in analogue rather than digital photography is the tactile element involved – when you shoot film you have physical objects, negatives and prints, and they encourage me to think of photographs as objects as well as images. Don’t restrain yourself to a flat surface or pixels on a screen. Liquid emulsion (sometimes referred to as ‘Liquid Light’) can be coated onto all manner of surfaces to make them light sensitive and allow the exposure of a photographic image. The most memorable instance of this I witnessed was someone exposing the image of a face onto the surface of a mirror. Digital photographs can of course escape the computer screen and become objects as well. Give your images weight and presence by printing them, binding them into books, cutting and tearing them, sticking them together again in photomontages. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Have strength in your creative decisions
When updating your portfolio/website/blog don’t show two versions of the same image (or strikingly similar images you can’t choose between) without a good reason, otherwise you can give the impression of being unsure of yourself and your decisions as a photographer. Go with your instincts and stick with them; a big part of the creative process involves tough decisions and knowing when and how to be critical of your own work.

Look at other artists’ work
It doesn’t have to just be photographers. Many photographers have been heavily influenced by other art forms; two examples that spring to mind are Jeff Wall, who has created a number of images that are direct reconstructions of famous paintings, and Robert Mapplethorpe, who is more generally influenced by painting and traditional Fine Art is his formalist approach to composition in his photographs. And art of all kinds is so accessible these days – there are hundreds of galleries in London alone, artists are releasing more and more books of their work, and there are some fantastic art/photo blogs and websites you can follow online. Looking at and reading about the work of other creatives can teach you so much about how to approach your own work, and may even directly inspire or influence you.

It’s about you
Photography (and all art forms really) doesn’t have to be about exhibitionism. Work for yourself, not to please other people. It’s far more fulfilling that way.

Have fun
And try not to take yourself too seriously! Enjoy yourself.

I talk to you in my head

The companion text for this series of images...

I talk to you in my head, 2011

Mechanical tweaking forces order amongst my chattering thoughts. The structure and sequences required for successful operation cut through the white noise. Confining light and space and words to the restriction of the ground glass reduces the limitless and ungraspable to merely shape and shadow. Sequencing my actions forces mimicry in my thoughts.

Once you are reduced to two-dimensional monotone shades I can claim you, control you, forget you.

I talked to you in my head and it never failed to bring forth prickles of salt water. When the words escaped you were not there to hear them, but the cool curved glass was and it caught them and trapped them into frames of grain. Hush. You are quiet now.

An introduction

This blog has been created as an archive of my writings/ramblings. It won't be updated as frequently as my image blog (which you can find here), but hopefully what does appear will be interesting. Enjoy.