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Balancing creativity with longevity

Balancing creativity with longevity is a battle I believe fought by all artists and photographers, or indeed any impassioned professional that combines a creative element with the need to be commercially viable (and profitable).

I recited this kinship to my wife the other evening when identifying the plight of Masterchef contestants who having poured countless hours of creative thought and energy into their creation only to have it destroyed in a matter of seconds by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace as unfit for restaurant consumption.

What am I getting at here? Well that you either conform and suppress your creativity settling, or continue to push ahead with your vision in the hope that it develops into something others see as special and exciting. For me failing to 'stand out from the crowd' and succumb to being 'just another photographer' is not an option. How though do you combine this ambition with longevity?

Longevity

Doug Menuez describes the challenge most eloquently in his recent article "On chaos, fear, survival & luck: Longevity is the answer";

To survive the creative, economic and emotional chaos of a life in photography your career must be designed for longevity. To achieve longevity, you must reconcile the conflict between what you shoot for money and what you love to shoot. Ideally, you get paid to shoot exactly what you love to shoot, every day. Reaching this nirvana requires making tough choices, a careful business strategy and attention to basic business practices. (Or be super talented/lucky, born wealthy or marry a brilliant business manager).

Simple, right? Not exactly, and this idea assumes you will survive the current financial disaster we are traversing. Some details are in order...

Read Doug's full article by clicking here.

Reaching Nirvana

As Doug says the ultimate solution is to be paid for shooting what you love, and therefore finance your creative ambitions. It was my belief for a long time that my only resolve to this was to split my work down the middle; the non-creative half that pays, and the creative part that (initially at least) doesn't.

I see now this was completely nonsense and only caused to amplify my mental anguish when trying to identify a path that facilitated creativity growth and style. It is perfectly possible to reach this Nirvana given insight, planning, and oodles of ambition.

How do I get there?

I think this very much depends on the individual and their circumstance, we must all devise our own path based on the opportunities available to us as both now and on our photographic journey.

However to illustratre; Jeff Ascough has combed his love for Cartier-Bresson photo-journalistic style images with his Wedding photography, developing his own recognisable style that his much admired the world over; and Chase Jarvis who has brought his own unique creative style to commercial projects, making him one of the most sough-after photographers today.

When?

Like the journey of many striving artists there is no guaranteed timescale or definitive direction, our only choice is to let our creativity and passion lead the way. However with this new belief and understanding I stand confident that I will get there, and am determined to enjoy every step along the way!

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