People told me I wouldn’t find a true style for five or ten years, if not a lifetime. It’s held true. Just when I think I have it where I want it, I look back and think it’s crap. I would stress patience and not paying too much attention to other people’s work. Shoot because you love it; shoot the stuff that resonates with you.

I try to shoot in a way that pleases me and hope to connect with art directors and photo editors who resonate with the same things. Those are the relationships that will be fruitful and the jobs that will turn out well.

via The Great Discontent: Eric Ryan Anderson. thx, Charlie

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9 Comments

  1. Good word! Paying too much attention to other people’s work leads to comparison. Comparison is a slippery road to self-doubt and fear that we are not good enough.

  2. 100% truth. Your view of the world changes as you grow and this influences your work. Belief in the naturalness of this changing vision is much more important than any style-of-the-moment.

    And that’s no platitude, I’ve found financially it pays more in the long run to develop your vision than trying to chase the fleeting style-of-the-moment.

  3. I agree with Craig. Good point on following your own vision and connecting with those who share a vision and being open to continual change.

  4. It is the hardest thing to do in life, to be our self. We see things in other people we admire, like Rob being such a strait shooter. I have held a camera in my hands for a long time. I think it finally began to sink in and surfaces in the past six months. I can see what and how I enjoy shooting over everything else. My focus is to perfect and get as good at it as I can. I hope it doesn’t take another 30 years because I will have passed that final peak in a photographers life. I actually shot less during 2011 than I did the two previous years.

  5. “People told me”… everything that comes after that is of no importance.

    If you pay attention to what people tell you, then you are just too weak to say it yourself.

  6. Looking at others work is still good though as it makes me want to create myself…and striving for a kind of lighting or technical finesse is aided by comparing my work to others being where I want to be ie published

  7. I agree with Alex. In my case, I get ideas through the creative friction that looking at other people’s work produces. It helps me raise my bar. It helps me keep on edge and active. It piques my desire to get into the studio or out into the world and perhaps to measure up my work against other artist’s. It helps me avoid ‘photographer’s block’, which is more subtle and less physical than that of writers, but can exist. And all of this in private, for free. I therefore try to maximize the possibilities the context offers.

    Perhaps it all comes down to personal strengths and shortcomings. For me there’s never the danger of trying to be someone else, or of deadly contamination that results in malign irreversible mutation. That doesn’t simply happen. On the other hand, I can point out a few instances that really don’t work for me but seem to be universally praised, or at least embraced: portfolio reviews, and trying to push one’s work or oneself through the system in the hope that someone will ‘discover’ you, suck you in and make you an insider. What a loss of energy! Energy that could be devoted to quiet work! But, again, that might work for many people, at least that’s what it looks like when I see so many photographers embracing these practices, and even lining up waiting for their turn…

    • I feel you on portfolio reviews. My thought on this is: the right portfolio review can be handy.

      You need to know the reviewer(s), or at least admire their work. It is much more valuable if you believe that you are on the same page they are. The same is true of anyone who views your work.

      I would not worry about someone else influencing your work. It is unavoidable, and a common insecurity among young artists. Embrace your influences, whoever they may be. Don’t worry; you’ll be fine.


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