How Creative are you..............Really?

[woof woof]

Yup.

One thing that some writers and composers have said about some of the most loved melodies / songs is that they pretty much write themselves and it's as if the artist is channelling them. And of course the (arguably) greatest sculptors "see" the final form in the block of stone and simply reveal it by chiselling away the excess material. So, how much art is there is simply channelling a melody or chipping away some excess marble?

Of course photography can be art. Even writing a shopping list can be art.

 

[ancient_mariner]

I'm not sure whether this thread is necessarily helpful. Plato's understanding was that the very best will focus on a single area, and to spread ones expertise was to be mediocre, and while I do not agree with him, it is not a given that someone creative in one area will automatically be creative in others. Handling fabrics requires a very different set of skills from cooking or driving with panache (an act mostly frowned upon in this forum).

Outside of photography I design and build guitar amps, play guitar & bass, occasionally design lab equipment, cook my own recipes, I used to draw (no longer interested in drawing and painting) and played brass instruments at one time.

 

[Andrew Davies Photography]

Its a thread like many others designed to instigate conversation and thought, that is after all the idea of the forum is it not ? Its not necessary to be 'helpful', but it is good to hear and understand everyone's views and in this case other interests. Personally i have found it quite interesting so far.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Its a thread like many others designed to instigate conversation and thought, that is after all the idea of the forum is it not ? Its not necessary to be 'helpful', but it is good to hear and understand everyone's views and in this case other interests. Personally i have found it quite interesting so far.

The word 'inflammatory' was what I had in mind, but understatement is sadly ineffective on the internet.

 

[Yv]

In fairness though Toni, it hasn't been inflammatory, it has just created debate and discussion, which is quite nice to see round here.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Yes, in fairness it didn't end up like that at all, and I'm glad about that.

 

[Andrew Davies Photography]

lol@Toni, giving the bees nest a good kick only to find it empty

 

[Stu Meech]

I personally wouldn't call myself creative, after all I take a photo not make a photo.

 

[sirch]

It seems to me that a lot of replies in this thread are mixing skill with creativity. Playing an instrument, making a pot, taking a photo are skills that can be learned. Creativity is about new ideas, things have not been seen or done before. This may be adding your own interpretation to a piece of music that someone else has written or designing a new, easier-to-use user interface for a camera.

 

[Pookeyhead]

I read a lot about 'Being creative' but are you really?

If you are creative it must flow past Photography..

I have artist friends on the Isle of Wight who are photographers, Painters Carnival designers. some have designed and built their houses. boats etc.

If you tell me you are creative Photographer and live in 1940s semi and cant draw or paint or have a single design/Artistic idea out side of photography are you CREATIVE? I think not and those people are telling porkies.
do make your own clothes? Can you do, make anything pottery?

That is a creative person.... Creative people have it in their blood their soul it's their life and in everything they do?
do draw in pastels or charcoal?

If you say you are creative. Are you creative in something other than photography?

Interesting standpoint. I'm not sure I agree though. History is full of people who have put all their passion and creativity into one subject alone.

I'm really puzzled by where you live as well. What does living in a 40's semi have to do with it? Would that change anything about you as a person? Surely, the biggest factor in where you live is money, not creativity. I reckon the vast majority of people live in a semi-detached house, simply because most houses in the UK are such properties. Would moving from a semi-detached house to a converted lighthouse or something make you more creative? I think not. Surely, if you live in a 40s semi the measure of your creativity is what you've done WITH that 40s semi, not the fact that you live in one.. as that is probably dictated by your wealth.. nothing else. If you don't mind me saying... that was a spectacularly stupid thing to say

You're being very descriptive in your viewpoint.

For the record: I write, I paint, I draw and both myself and my wife are also graphic designers. As for photography, while I did it for a living as a pure photographer for over 20 years, personally, my interest in it now is as a ethnographic and anthropological tool as much as anything else.

 

[Daryl]

My point being all the people I know who are truly creative do more or many things.

Photographers especially.

It's just a discussion...

Those who get offended don't need to post owt. It's just a thread.
The house? Hahaha, design an extension..... Now build a lighthouse on one? Great idea... a street in Croydon would look far better.
I was watching Sarah Beeney convert one so that's why I throw a curve ball...
I'm just trying to provoke a response......

Just wondered if creativity flowed in other areas.............

Outside of photography I design and build guitar amps, play guitar & bass, occasionally design lab equipment, cook my own recipes, I used to draw (no longer interested in drawing and painting) and played brass instruments at one time.

Hard to see the beef there Toni... I would put in the very creative Camp there with the skills and passion that goes into making guitars etc....

 

[Yv]

It seems to me that a lot of replies in this thread are mixing skill with creativity. Playing an instrument, making a pot, taking a photo are skills that can be learned. Creativity is about new ideas, things have not been seen or done before. This may be adding your own interpretation to a piece of music that someone else has written or designing a new, easier-to-use user interface for a camera.

Which was the point I was making earlier, about definition of creative, it has several. Sure, I can create a photo, a painting, a fancy new set of covers for my sofa, but I don't by my own definition consider myself creative, I don't consider myself to quite have that extended imagination needed to be coming up with new ideas, new concepts or schemes. Which btw, also puts a spanner in the spokes of the astrologers too, who consider me to be born under one of the most creative star/sun signs

Daryl - moved from a 2 up/2 down terrace to a 4 bed detached... the only thing that has changed is the ability to create more stored junk Country cottage next, maybe that will help

 

[Raptor Mike]

I would also class think outside the box as creative, or problem solving, or even being imagnitive.
I'd like to be more creative but lack of skills in that area don't help lol. I have a great imagination, I think anyway, is making those ideas physical or digital that's the problem. I don't think you need to be good at more than one thing though. You could be the best sculptor in the word but rubbish at anything else. Does that mean your not creative?

PS great idea for discussion @Daryl

 

[droj]

creative
(kriːˈeɪtɪv)
adj
1. having the ability to create
2. characterized by originality of thought; having or showing imagination: a creative mind.
3. designed to or tending to stimulate the imagination: creative toys.
4. characterized by sophisticated bending of the rules or conventions: creative accounting.

(Collins dictionary)

 

[Daryl]

Ok! ok!
The house thing was because whilst typing this I was watching more house for half the price thingy... And one of my other dreams is to design and build house.... just threw it in there.

Saying that though.. If I won the lottery I'd get some land and have a German Huff house built and a handful full of dusky maidens to share it with.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Sorry Daryl - it was obviously Sunday afternoon boredom taking hold.

Creativity is a curious thing, because I'd say that EVERYTHING humans do is derivative, stimulated by and building on the thoughts and designs of others. Even if someone is the 'first' to do something, they will be standing on the shoulders of those from whom they gathered ideas in the first place. I'd see creativity as an iterative process, rather than spontaneous and unique generation.

 

[Andrew Davies Photography]

Interesting standpoint. I'm not sure I agree though. History is full of people who have put all their passion and creativity into one subject alone.

Would moving from a semi-detached house to a converted lighthouse or something make you more creative? .

Ermm yes.

Waking each morning to see the the sunrise over the ocean , breathing the sea air and all its goodness , being bathed in sunlight , living in a peice of history - if that did not inspire someone to be creative more than living in a 40s semi then the person is dead from the neck up anyway. So yes where you live does have relation to your creativity in some ways.

 

[Daryl]

What about building a Lighthouse on to a Croydon semi?

 

[ancient_mariner]

Were you asking me? Plenty of lighthouses around, ditto semis. I grew up in South Norwood, just outside Croydon, and there were lots of buildings around with odd towers & stuff. In Southwold the lighthouse is in the town IIRC. If you want to see something more arguably creative then there's the house in Cowley with a shark through the roof, but I'm pretty sure I've seen images that looked like that in comics when I was a kid.

TBH I don't think any one individual can do anything that isn't derivative of some one/thing else, because of the way we grow and process our environment. I don't see that as a problem, but it should make for smaller egos.

 

[bass_junkie83]

I would say I am a good problem solver, but not very creative.
I can make a good idea work, but rarely is it my idea in the first place.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Waking each morning to see the the sunrise over the ocean , breathing the sea air and all its goodness , being bathed in sunlight , living in a peice of history - if that did not inspire someone to be creative more than living in a 40s semi then the person is dead from the neck up anyway. So yes where you live does have relation to your creativity in some ways.

Why should looking as a sunset over the sea from a lighthouse be any more inspiring than looking at the semi across the road on a dull day? If you need things like sunsets to be inspired I reckon you're already dead from the neck up. It's attitude of mind that matters. Not where you live or sunsets.

Check out Kertesz's late pictures. In fact check out all his photographs to see how he could find great pictures anywhere.

 

[big soft moose]

If you say you are creative. Are you creative in something other than photography?

I turn and carve wood , plus i write fiction (and not just into udate profiles or sickness justifications ) .. i'm not sure if that makes me a creative photographer however as i lean towards the 'pretty landscape' / pretty girl / fluffeh kitteh type of photography, not the 'challenging art' field

 

[joxby]

It depends how you define creativity but an interesting discussing is one regarding the impact shooting professionally has on creativity.

I mean, it also depends on what you shoot I suppose but having sat both sides of the fence I consider my time shooting for money the most uncreative period of my time taking pictures.

We are given a brief, outside of which there isn't much scope to deviate, course we have to make that brief a reality somehow whilst managing client expectation, but is that really creativity, or just using the tools of the trade, equipment and know how.

If we can't we display creativity within the confines of a client brief, how does that impact on the work we do away from paid jobs.

 

[Pookeyhead]

Ermm yes.

Waking each morning to see the the sunrise over the ocean , breathing the sea air and all its goodness , being bathed in sunlight , living in a peice of history - if that did not inspire someone to be creative more than living in a 40s semi then the person is dead from the neck up anyway. So yes where you live does have relation to your creativity in some ways.

If you need to live in a lighthouse to be creative, then I suggest you're not creative. Creative people create, no matter where they are. I've got third year students living in bedsits who are far more creative than I am.

 

[Mad-Photographer]

Ok.....
I can 'create' a fantastic (meal) from nothing. So my better half says. When he looks in the fridge there's nothing, when I look in, there's always something. Amazing!

Does that make me creative?
I'm crap at photography though, so I'm really sure what that makes me !?

 

[Andrew Davies Photography]

If you need to live in a lighthouse to be creative, then I suggest you're not creative. Creative people create, no matter where they are. I've got third year students living in bedsits who are far more creative than I am.

Nobody said you needed to be. There will be more creative people than you everywhere so your bedsit analogy is pointless. Inspiration and creativity come from many places inside and out - can your creativity be influenced by your environment? imo yes of course it can, anyone who thinks not is simply not creative enough to understand.

 

[simon ess]

- can your creativity be influenced by your environment? imo yes of course it can, anyone who thinks not is simply not creative enough to understand.

Classic nonsense rhetoric.

If you don't agree with me, you just don't understand and you must be a philistine.



I'm a human being. I am therefore creative, as we all are.

There are many reasons why many of us don't fulfil our creative potential.

Where we live is low on the list.

 

[Daryl]

The creative folk I know all started in different back grounds.. but they all moved to homes that reflect who and what they are... From picture postcard cottage to water tower conversions. Windmill restored down the road from us.
Others, tower block roof conversions with large sky Lights studios etc... ware house conversions , or build their own eco home.. This all reflects who they are.....

Same as the wall paper you choose.....
your surroundings are conducive to that person to inspire , to give the correct surroundings to create..... anything from music, photography, house design, recipes, solar panel..... Who knows what they can do in the right environment.

Granted they have to have made plenty of dosh to live that dream...... Others can probably do in a bedsit in Clapham with endless traffic noise outside......

Me? I work better with rock music and fridge full of beer in a studio with 20 cheerleaders.

 

[Ed Sutton]

Inspiration and creativity come from many places inside and out - can your creativity be influenced by your environment? imo yes of course it can, anyone who thinks not is simply not creative enough to understand.

How and what you create is influenced by your environment, not whether you will be creative or not - that is entirely an internal thing.

There seem to be a number of people in this thread who don't have a clear understanding of the creative process.

Very often creative leaps come from simply doing a lot of drudge work and, as Eno points out in the video I posted (Did anyone watch it?), being aware when something unusual has happened and latching on to it for further development. That could be taking photographs of your feet when you are bored. Suddenly one of them might be different to any you have taken or seen before and it sparks an idea from which you might develop more pictures.

At it's heart 'creativity' is a sophisticated form of play. That's what creative people do, they bugger about in their chosen medium until something happens. It doesn't always happen, of course, but if you mess about sufficiently it will happen more often than if you go looking for inspiration in lighthouses by the coast.

This is what would-be creative people don't understand. They think inspiration comes from above. That it arrives unbidden from some external source. It doesn't, it comes from hard graft and awareness.

To paraphrase Thomas Edison: creativity is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

 

[DG Phototraining]

I think I'm creative

Aside from togging - I usually split my Skittles up into their colour groups then eat them in different sets to create different tastes, and I always try to eat all the chocolate off my KitKats before touching the biscuit

Is that what you mean Daryl ???

Dave

 

[Steve Smith]

To paraphrase Thomas Edison: creativity is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

How would he know? He just stole other people's ideas.


Steve.

 

[Pookeyhead]

Nobody said you needed to be. There will be more creative people than you everywhere so your bedsit analogy is pointless. Inspiration and creativity come from many places inside and out - can your creativity be influenced by your environment? imo yes of course it can, anyone who thinks not is simply not creative enough to understand.

I'm not actually suggesting environment has no influence. What I'm saying is that it doesn't have to be idyllic, or esoteric or, as Daryl was suggesting, expensive and "different". If you're creative, you'll be creative no matter where you are. For Phillipe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg, their inspiration came from living with heroin addicts at the side of a Californian overpass. For Ansel Adams it was being in the Sierra Nevadas... NOT at home. His home was quite modest in his creative period. What inspires you is linked to what interests you. Adams was a landscape photographer, and Schonberg was an ethnographer. I know photographers who are inspired by being in the city.. one in particular who spends all his time in Salford.. in areas few dare to go. That inspires him, as he likes to document such areas. He actually rents a flat there. You can't just walk into these places like that as a stranger with a camera... they'll ****ing kill you. He's been there for years "becoming" what he needs to do his work. Throughout history, you'll find more reference to creatives living a far more bohemian lifestyle than an affluent one. There is no formula, but being around PEOPLE is a sure sign of creative minds... not exclusively.. but it's highly common.

This idea that creative people live in converted barns/windmills/ [insert inappropriate building of your choice here] is just utter nonsense. It also implies that creative people have a wish to wear their creativity on their sleeve and let the world know how creative they are. This is also not true.. unless you live in Hebdon Bridge, then it probably is ... Those that make a big deal about being different/successful/individual/creative almost certainly aren't in my experience. Just as Chavs drape themselves in cheap jewellery to try and show wealth, pseudo-creatives do the same with their "creativity".

Most creatives just create and don't give a crap about what message their house gives to the world. They'd rather let their work do that.

 

[Ed Sutton]

How would he know? He just stole other people's ideas.

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

There's a quote for every occasion.

 

[Andrew Davies Photography]

Throughout history, you'll find more reference to creatives living a far more bohemian lifestyle than an affluent one.

Sorry but i don't agree with you , and we are not only talking about affluence , the amount of creative poets, writers, artists etc who live ( and take inspiration from ) character building or idyllic settings whether that be the likes of Wordsworths family home in the Lake District or Shakespears in Stratford. Once someone who comes from a standard three bed suburban semi makes enough money do you not think they would then wish to feed their creativity by moving somewhere with more creative potential or somewhere more inspiring ?

We live in materialistic world and being creative does not mean you automatically discount yourself from wanting nice things.

 

[Ed Sutton]

... somewhere with more creative potential or somewhere more inspiring ?

You still haven't grasped that location isn't important, have you? Everywhere and anywhere has potential. Van Gogh painted wherever he was - his gloomy homeland, somewhere sunny or a lunatic asylum. It didn't matter. Sunflowers or old boots, it made no difference.

 

[Andrew Davies Photography]

You still haven't grasped that location isn't important, have you? Everywhere and anywhere has potential. Van Gogh painted wherever he was - his gloomy homeland, somewhere sunny or a lunatic asylum. It didn't matter. Sunflowers or old boots, it made no difference.

and you havent grasped that this is all opinion and preference and yours is no more valid than anyone elses. I will take the windmill.

 

[Pookeyhead]

Sorry but i don't agree with you , and we are not only talking about affluence , the amount of creative poets, writers, artists etc who live ( and take inspiration from ) character building or idyllic settings whether that be the likes of Wordsworths family home in the Lake District or Shakespears in Stratford. Once someone who comes from a standard three bed suburban semi makes enough money do you not think they would then wish to feed their creativity by moving somewhere with more creative potential or somewhere more inspiring ?

We live in materialistic world and being creative does not mean you automatically discount yourself from wanting nice things.

I think you misunderstand. I'm not suggesting you're wrong in as much as the environment doesn't play a role... merely that being somehow idyllic, or pastoral is necessary. That would only be the case if that was what drove them personally. Wordsworth CLEARLY benefited from his environment, but by the same measure, so did Jack Kerouac... the difference being the environment that fed them... the two would be almost the total opposites of each other.

If I gained enough wealth to move from my quite modest 3 bedroom house, yes, of course I'd be in a bigger house (but not as big as you'd imagine.. after all.. I can only use so much space), but as you say.. " Once someone who comes from a standard three bed suburban semi makes enough money do you not think they would then wish to feed their creativity by moving somewhere with more creative potential or somewhere more inspiring ?:... yes.... my problem however, is your assumption that more creative or inspirational is the same for everyone. Quite frankly, moving to the countryside would be a creative death for me. What the **** am I going to find to inspire me there? We're not all landscape photographers you know

Yes we all like nice things, but we don't all feel the need to extend our creativity to our homes. Personally, I like my home to be practical, simple and unadorned. It is in no way a measure of my personal creative direction. I don't decorate my home with my creativity. The only room in my house that features my work is my work room, where I plaster the walls with the images from my current projects.. stuck on with masking tape. I like to live with my images while I'm working on them.. but that's a private space.. a working space. The rest of the house, while a reflection of me and my tastes, is not a shrine to my creativity. That would just be narcissistic in the extreme.

 

[Ed Sutton]

and you havent grasped that this is all opinion and preference and yours is no more valid than anyone elses. I will take the windmill.

What cobblers this 'everyone's opinion is equally valid' is. Unfortunately it seems to abound on the 'democratic' internet.

Pookeyhead works in education with creative people, so his opinion should carry more weight on this subject than someone who shovels s*** for a living. I also have a background in a creative field and have made a point of studying (albeit casually) how people create 'art'. There is a case for being in a specific place, but it isn't what provides creative inspiration.

As a photographer the inspiration that fuels your creative urge should come from looking at things, at the world around you. You should be visually curious. Looking at things, anything, should excite you. Why limit yourself to picturesque tropes like windmills and sunsets?

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

 

[posiview]

As a photographer the inspiration that fuels your creative urge should come from looking at things, at the world around you. You should be visually curious. Looking at things, anything, should excite you.

I like that, I like that a lot.

Cheers.

 

[big soft moose]

What cobblers this 'everyone's opinion is equally valid' is. Unfortunately it seems to abound on the 'democratic' internet.

Pookeyhead works in education with creative people, so his opinion should carry more weight on this subject than someone who shovels s*** for a living. I also have a background in a creative field and have made a point of studying (albeit casually) how people create 'art'. There is a case for being in a specific place, but it isn't what provides creative inspiration.

As a photographer the inspiration that fuels your creative urge should come from looking at things, at the world around you. You should be visually curious. Looking at things, anything, should excite you. Why limit yourself to picturesque tropes like windmills and sunsets?

."

I'm sorry but now you've strayed in gortch territory "you can think what you like but i'm right and your wrong" is not a sensible grounds for discussion, if you think that then the discussion is over before it starts.

End of the day 'what provides creative inspiration' is different for every person - so no one can say that location does or doesnt have an effect because people are different. If you were as much as an expert as you think you are you'd recognise that (as David indeed did , ref wordswortth/Keroac etc)

Also theres no 'should' when it comes to amateur photography - if people want to limit themselves to certain fields and not be excited by anything and everything that doesnt make them lesser photographers or even less creative , and no one is in a position to tell another what they should or shouldn't photograph or be excited about