Nomadic Vision

Archive for the ‘Sources of Inspiration’ Category

Mountain light and flora combine to make a fairy tale scene in the Swiss Alps near Balalp

I browse through hundreds of photographs a week, amazed by the beauty and diversity of our world. There are a few photographers however, whose work is not only beautiful, but inspiring as well. Their work makes me want to drop whatever I’m doing and immediately head over to that very spot.

Take the time to browse through their work and subscribe to their RSS feed:

• Darwin Wiggett
• Dan Baumbach
• JMG Galleries
• Mitchell’s Travel and Photography Blog
• Pixilated Images
• Steve McCurry
• The Art of Adventure

Do you have any recommendations of your own? Just leave them in the comments

I’ve been quite taken back at how much moving location has influenced what I photograph. I grew up in East London, a South African city  between Cape Town and Durban. Whilst living there, my primary focus was capturing the beauty of the coastline. East London has one of the most un-spoilt, beautiful coastlines in South Africa. In the 10 years that I lived there, never once did a venture into the slums, which were literally within 5 kilometers of my home.

When surrounded by poverty, I had the mind frame that it was completely normal, why would anyone want to see it in a photo. Moving to London has completely changed my point of view. I would love to photograph the slum in East London, not to document the poverty to cause sympathy, but rather to capture the beauty and joy found there.

Steve McCurry has recently become my favorite photographer. I’ve always been taken back by his Afghan Girl portrait, but browsing through his work, I see beauty and sense feeling of joy and contentment that inspires me even more.

Most of us are of the opinion that people who live in slums are desperately unhappy and cannot wait to get out, but from what I’ve seen, most are completely content. If contentment and joy can be had in the slums, why not in affluent cities? Most city dwellers I observe always seems to be striving to improve their lives, never content with what they have.

In December we are visiting East London, South Africa for a few weeks and I can’t wait to get into the slums.

Post production is my least favorite aspect of the photographic process. To make it more interesting and often to inspire creativity, I listen to music (check out spotify if you live in the UK). Last night I tried something different, I listened to an interview with one of my favorite photographers, Darwin Wiggett.

The podcast is quite an eye opener(literally) and if taken to heart, will definitely push your photography up a notch. Rather then spoil the podcast by summarizing it here, take some time to listen to it.

Although we would love to claim that all of our work is completely original, it is very rare that any of our ideas are completely original. In fact, it has been said that if you find an example of any artwork that is completely original, you haven’t looked hard enough.

A lot of creativity these days is based on how well you can innovate off of the foundations laid by someone else. Take automotive design for example. The basic shape of a car has been around for over a hundred years, but it is fair to say that each manufacturer has a car that is fairly unique.

One of the best sources of inspiration for us is the work of other photographers.  A photographer who seems to burst with originality is South African photographer,  Mitchell Krog. His work has been featured internationally and he is perhaps best known for his lightening photography. Check out his post on lightening photography here.