Creativity - That illusive Magical word

As a photographer, being creative is my job. I’m expected to be at my supreme creative self when on assignment and churn out ideas like an unstoppable machine gun gone on a wild shooting spree.

There’s also this particular way my brain behaves. Ideas will keep floating aimlessly in my brain at free will but just when someone asks for one, I hit an instant coma. Blank. While I may look like I’m internally in deep thought and focusing myself to give you the greatest earth shattering idea of all times, my brain has switched off to thinking very critical matters like did I leave the fan on while leaving home or could Harry Potter be written differently?

So when I’m asked to think and be creative, that’s my least creatively productive time. If this is not the case with you, well, hats off. Do read this though.

As a coping mechanism, I frantically look for ideas. “Referencing” as we call it. Pinterest, Behance and other lords of images are summoned. Portfolios are scanned, websites of other photographers licked clean, and what looks like the best bet to pitch for a brief is chosen, of course with changes and tweaks to the original idea to avoid all confrontation with old friend Mr Guilt.

While this approach mostly solves problems in the mood board room, Mr Guilt always finds a way to say hi. What happened to originality? How will I find my own unique voice and artistic expression if my ideas aren’t original to begin with?

The answers came after years or turmoil. Creativity is practice.

Practice. Verb.

It is something that you do every single day. It is somewhat like building a town. You build roads, housing blocks, parks, hospitals, theaters. You make an environment for your ideas to exist and flourish. You make an infrastructure of imagination so well oiled and coordinated that you only have to tap that environment gently and ideas will perennially generate and flow. Original ideas. Your ideas.

So how do we build this world and aura of creativity?

Document. Verb.

Saw this gorgeous pattern the light shaped with leaves on a wall. Take a picture and log it. Saw a beautiful scene in a movie that moved you. Take a screen shot and log it. Not important deconstructing what and why you liked in it at this point. It is important that the documentation is done at one place for easy access and retrieval. I can write so I document in a notebook. I carry it with me everywhere and these aimlessly floating ideas in my mind now have a physical form, of words and silly diagrams and screenshots in my phone.

I even document memories, they are a very important part of my creative practice. Rita, a cow I grew up with on my farm became the central theme of a fashion story I did, decades later. The images got published in an international fashion magazine because the idea was so personal and original.

Your personality, your experiences and your life in general will shape your creative Eco-system. Observe it, embrace it and document it. Your next great idea will come from whats happening to you, around you and how you choose to respond to it.

So how do you use this bible of ideas that you’ve created? Remember the screen shot from the movie scene? Behind the character was a red lamp illuminating her hair and the window of her room in a certain way. [Mah imagination, Mah rules, its a lady in the scene]. That could be your lighting inspiration for the next food shoot. At least that can be the starting point.

Nurture your universe of ideas, put experiences in it, put history and culture in it. Put things in it that spark your joy. Things that illuminate your mind. Don’t worry if it has cats, politics and quantum physics at the same time.

Magic will happen.