If you’ve followed this blog for very long or visited my digital meadow, then you know I have a bit of a fraught relationship with social media. On the one hand, it feels like a necessary tool to grow my business and connect to some of the people and things I enjoy. On the other it’s an echo chamber of ideas that, I think when you aren’t careful, can stifle creativity and growth. One of my biggest complaints has always been the feeling that I had to stick to being one type of photographer making one type of image, since the algorithm punishes deviations.
I’ve been reading Austin Kleon’s book Keep Going, a fun little book I highly recommend, which lays out ten ways to stay creative in good times and bad (though I honestly believe they can all be applied to life in general.) My favorite is number 7: You Are Allowed to Change Your Mind. In this chapter I found the following quote, which perfectly sums up my frustrations:
“Social media has turned us all into politicians. And brands. Everyone is supposed to be a brand now, and the worst thing in the world is to be off-brand. But to be on brand is to be 100 percent certain of who you are and what you do, and certainty, in art and life, is not only completely overrated, it is also a roadblock to discovery.”
And it’s true. Why are we so afraid of change? I can’t imagine a life where everyone is the same all the time and no one changes, myself included. Nor do I want to live a life where change and growth are discouraged. I like to think that as we learn new information, we experience something we hadn’t before, or we’re just ready to move into the next phase in the metamorphosis of becoming better human beings, that we can - and should - embrace change, in ourselves and in each other.
And I would hope that this can be applied to creativity as well. Growing creatively requires constant reexamining and reevaluation. It requires stretching out and doing something new. And maybe even changing your mind about something. These pictures for example are images that five or six years ago I’m not sure I would have made. Perhaps if I’d been in the right place at the right time. But I wouldn’t have set out with the intention to make them. And even as recently as this time last year I wouldn't have felt like I could share them, because they’re too different; they’re too off-brand.
But I like them. And I like that they represent trying something a little different.
So here’s to changing our minds, and to the possibility of growth that comes along with it. In fact, here’s my challenge to each of you: Find something in your life the boundaries of which you haven’t pushed in a while. Maybe it’s a creative endeavor, the genre of music you listen to, or maybe even a political or religious idea. And then find a way to push that boundary. Make a piece of art you usually wouldn’t, listen to an album you’ve written off as not for you, or have a conversation with someone who holds a different opinion. And open up to the possibility that you might just change your mind. And it might just change you for the better.
PS - And when you’re done I’d love to hear about it! As always, you can write me here!