Creativity and Selfie Redux

Welcome to a new year and to a new semester.  I hope everyone is feeling refreshed from a nice vacation and prepared to enjoy creating some interesting new images.  So what better way to begin anew than to ponder the following question:  

What is creativity?

Joshua Hoffine creates images that reflect terrible thoughts.

We have probably all seen something truly odd and said, “THAT’s pretty creative!” meaning, it seems purposeless and generally inane. 

We even talk about “creative liars,” as if such a backhanded compliment didn’t besmirch the notion of creativity as much as it demeaned prevarication.

Creativity can in some circles be seen as an inferior substitute for disciplined hard work.  For instance, in finance, it is decidedly uncomplimentary to suggest someone has used “creative” accounting.

Erik Johansson collects digital material and re-assembles
it to create the image he has pre-visualized in his imagination

Another way of viewing creativity is to see it as the result of a great deal of disciplined hard work.  After all, in the arts as well as in more practical disciplines such as engineering or science, creativity means to create, to make something new.  At the very least, creativity involves taking parts and putting them together in a better and more effective, more pleasing way.  Very creative people actually invent new thoughts or objects.

And let’s face it, some people are simply more creative than others. They have more fertile imaginations, see things differently or express themselves in a way most of us can’t. 

Kirsty Mitchell can spend weeks assembling models' costumes.
See more about her art here.

But for all of us, no matter what degree of talent we bring to the endeavor, to be creative we must master our art.  A jazz pianist improvising sophisticated melodies and shifting through subtle harmonies has put in thousands of hours practicing scales and arpeggios.  A creative software designer making life-like figures respond athletically in a combat game has spent endless time writing computer code. 

So a creative photographer fully understands light and composition and the elements of design and the capabilities of her camera as well as the aesthetic responses of people looking at her art.  Currently, in the digital age, she probably also has real mastery of post-processing techniques.

It is one thing to have a “creative eye,” but without sound technique it is very difficult to communicate that vision.

Creativity is not a replacement for discipline.  It is the result of discipline.

Revisiting the Selfie:

In an earlier post, some were surprised to learn that selfies were as old as photography itself.  I have since had time to reflect on the fact that they are certainly as old as graphic arts.  It has made me wonder about selfies in cave drawings! Here is a very famous selfie, or as they were known in the day, “self portrait” of  Vincent Van Gough.  (He painted so many self portraits one wonders if he were not his own favorite subject).

And here is a selfie that proves they are not all trivial.  Astronaut Mike Hopkins worked with another crew member to share this pic.  Now this is a selfie to share on Facebook!