5 tips: How to find inspiration for a new photography project

Monday 20 July 2020, 16:32 by Elvira Smit | 5,408 views | 3 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

The pitfall of photography is that you can get so caught up in it. Literally, I mean. You could almost forget that it is a means to tell your story. But most people never get that far, which is a shame. So here is a guide in 4 steps.

1. Use photography as a means, not an end

It is tempting to focus on photography itself: you buy the latest / best / most expensive / most popular lenses, you subscribe to photography magazines and your laptop has the latest post-processing software.

There is nothing wrong with that, of course, provided it makes you happy. But something still nags at me. Because if you focus solely on photography as an end, there is a good chance your photography will consist of separate photos with little connection between them.

When your camera is merely a means of sharing your own vision, something changes in the way you take photographs. You will spend much more time choosing a theme to work on for a longer period.

How do you find your theme? You have to start with yourself: what do you find interesting, how do you see the world? Your choice of subject is what sets you apart from other photographers. The trick is to translate your different perspective into a photographic image that fits your style.

Time to get practical. So what do I do to arrive at my subject?

2. Buy a notebook, and write in it

The first, and most important, choice a photographer makes is what they are going to photograph. You can leave that to chance, or you can take it seriously. That means you have to understand what you want to say. So step one is to write down everything that interests you.

Everything. Films, poems, snippets of conversations that stay with you, memories, images from the newspaper. Or perhaps a list of everyday annoyances. As long as they are things that occupy your thoughts.

3. Start selecting

A notebook full of loose fragments does not make you a narrative photographer. But it does help you find a common thread in the things that interest you. With a bit of luck, you will discover themes and be able to group things together.

It also helps to let someone else look at it and ask which connections they see. Then make a list of possible subjects for photography projects. For each idea, ask yourself the following 5 questions:

Can the subject be visualised?
Is the subject sufficiently defined?
Do you want to explore this subject further?

4. Make a plan

It sounds boring, but it does help: a plan stating everything you are going to do in the coming period. Which locations are you going to visit to take photographs? Are you going to interview people? Do you want to read books related to your subject? Write it all in your plan. And work out how much time everything will take.

You do not have to set that plan in stone, by the way. There is a good chance you will eventually deviate from it anyway, because you will take a different turn along the way. But that does not matter. Frameworks mainly help you get started at the beginning. Once you get going, it will naturally become an addiction.

5. Schedule time each week to work on your subject

This is the most important step: make an agreement with yourself about how much time you are going to spend on this each week. Because without attention, nothing happens. The more you work on it, the more ideas you will get as well. Your brain will, as it were, switch on to your subject.

Have fun!

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