Choose your direction carefully

It can change your life

Good morning to all who read this! I want to start by thanking all of you who take the time to do so, and to those who are new here, welcome. Today, I want to discuss something that has only recently come up for me: The direction of our inspiration. Before I get into it, I just want to mention that once again I’ve hit my image quota for the week—actually, I exceeded it! I’ll share all of them at the end. Some are lighting experiments, but it's all part of the learning process.

I spent a lot of time driving this week and decided I didn’t want to listen to Zac Bryan or Tyler Childers for the thousandth time, so I switched to a podcast. I stumbled upon Dr. Alok M. Kanojia, also known as Dr. K. He wrote a book on raising a healthy gamer but is also a psychiatrist who's fantastic at articulation and relating to his listeners. In the podcast, he talks a lot about the content we consume and the impact it’s having on us as a generation. There’s so much we could discuss from that, but I want to focus on one thing I got from the podcast: inspiration.

Inspiration is the best—when you stumble upon something unique that gives you a little spark, it’s exciting. There’s nothing like it! But the podcast made me realise that I’ve become too reliant on external sources for my inspiration. I’ve spent hours on Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram, watching people do what I want to be doing, finding images I like, and saving them to see if I can create something that makes me feel the same way. I use it for lighting ideas, shot concepts, and even mentally building my future tiny home. I look up artists I come across, and then I get annoyed when I’m not doing as well as they are—the usual “healthy” relationship artists have with social media.

Now, I want to preface this by saying there’s NOTHING wrong with getting motivated by external sources. Most famous artists draw inspiration from their favorite artists. Great art leads to more great art. But here’s the kicker: by relying solely on external inspiration, I’m also forcing myself to rely on external validation. In order to see if I took the shot like someone else or made someone feel the way I was made to feel, I end up relying on the opinions and thoughts of others. That’s great when you’re chasing feedback, but if you're not chasing feedback, and you’re hoping to please external sources (family, friends, colleagues, strangers, art collectors), and they aren’t impressed, it can lead to feeling "not good enough."

Now, for another name to look up after you read this: Hiroshi Sugimoto. He’s an incredible photographer whose career spans over 50 years, and I bought his latest photo book this week. Reading it was a great reminder of what I learned from Dr. K. Pretty much all of Hiroshi’s insanely beautiful shots didn’t come from external inspiration—they came from dreams or from within. Internal inspiration is what sparked his drive, and it fueled him to not only master his craft but also collaborate with some of the greats like Rothko. The level of quality and dedication he put into his work is what I aim for.

In today’s world, almost everything comes from outside of us. We share something, seek feedback immediately, and crave validation, love, and success—all from the people whose opinions we value most. But if we take Hiroshi Sugimoto’s approach and Dr. K’s message about the importance of spending time with ourselves, we can tap into more ideas that are actually from within us. And that’s the only way to create something truly unique.

Hiroshi and Dr. K are great examples of the power of self-reflection to help us become who we want to be. Right now, when I get an idea (like the ones I’m sharing below), I believe I’m following my gut. But for years, I didn’t realise it wasn’t my gut at all—it was me trying to get people to tell me I’m good enough. That’s why I felt disappointed when I didn’t sell my pieces; it validated my own insecurities. But when we truly get to know ourselves, it starts to matter less whether the girl you like didn’t care about your Instagram story or if your prints didn’t sell. You’ll stop caring if no one comments on your latest piece.

The more we draw inspiration from within, the more we’ll create work we never thought possible. You’ll gain more confidence in yourself because you’ll finally be creating for the right reasons—you have something valuable to offer the world, and it’s by you, for you, and because you want to make it. That’s it.

Thank you all for reading, let me know what you’re hoping to achieve this week and what you think of the below frames.

See you all next Tuesday :)