Inspiration

Inspiration. Derived from the latin inspirare or to breathe in is according to Wikipedia the unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or another artistic endeavor like shooting plastic.

Inspiration. Our second word in our journey here in twenty seventeen has often been credited with a divine power. The muses with the old greeks or gods like Odin here in the Nordics.  In more recent times, renowned psychologists like Sigmund Freud brought the creative drive back to the subconscious and the inner psyche of the artists. And others linked inspiration directly to the social and political environments where one is living in.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Inspirations. The second word in our plastic journey” quote=”“I am your Inspiration”- Cleo, Muse of History, Greek Goddess”]

Most probably all of the above has some truth to it, but it would take us way beyond the sound of shooting plastic. When looking at this month word of inspiration we want to explore what is inspiring us as individuals.

What are our divine or much more down to earth triggers and sources of inspiration?

When talking about inspiration, we want to take you (and ourselves) on a journey of what inspires us, and see how this influences our creative work.

Looking at inspiration way beyond our direct creative field and see how we can use this inspiration in our own journey.

Look for who inspire us in our day to day lives. Who has been an influence and brought inspiration to us throughout our journey here on this planet. What exactly was it that attracted us, inspired us, and how can we bring this now back into our plastic photography.

This one is not easy …

It is actually a pretty difficult one as we will have to transpose. It is not about recreating the work of an inspirational photographer as we did last year (a very good exercise I can warmly recommend for everyone to do and for sure not an easy challenge either).

This one is not about looking at other great (toy) photographers and see what inspired you in their images, their style, and their storytelling and see how you can steal it like an artist (a great book and topic we explored before). It is all about exploring what inspires us as an individual and see how we can bring that inspiration back into our own work.

Make it part of our own creative work.

One of my great sources of inspiration is not an individual, but a collective body of ideas worth spreading. TED Talks

[clickToTweet tweet=”Looking for Inspiration.” quote=”“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein”]

We have shared some inspirational #TED talks before, and I was actually planning to share a different talk here today (which I will do later next week) when a most inspiring individual left our planet earlier this week. Hans Rosling, a Swedish physician, data scientist and gifted TED speaker passed away, but his creative talks on data and chimpanzees will live on in his work. Work that inspires me.

It is these kinds of inspirations we will be exploring with this word, and see how they can further influence our work as a plastic photographer.

I will add for sure TED as one of my three new sticky notes in my book of reflections for this months word of inspiration (*).

What inspires me in TED is the passion of other people and how they share their ideas and passions. It helps me to discover and learn.  New ideas for me and approaches to explore. Soundbites that leave an impression ready to be explored.

Here is another TED a little bit closer to our field of shooting plastic by another inspiring Swede, Erik Johansson that left me with some great ideas and triggered my imagination for some plastic photography down the road (pun intended).

I have a few other sticky notes with sources of inspiration lined up here in front of me. Inspirations that have traveled with me for a long time.

Some since my childhood, others only for the last few years but they have made a deep impression one way or the other.

Here they are in random order, ready to be explored in more detail.

Trey
Pop Art
CC
Wikipedia
Julien
Rene
TinTin
Jean
Photo
Jessica
William
John Ronald Reuel
and a few others …

Not sure which two inspirations I will finally select to accompany TED in my 3 sticky notes for this month.

I guess I am waiting for that divine inspiration to strike …

Boris

(*) if you want to join us in the creative journey here in twenty seventeen, you can jump in at any given time and follow along. We started with our first word of the year here, and are now in the second.  Impressions.  

We collect with each word the initial impressions they trigger within us on some individual sticky notes and store these away as a precious gift throughout our journey. The sticky notes are personal, but sometimes we will share with you what is on it as they can be an inspiration for others as well. And then we try to distil one or more photos out of these reflections. Reflections and word associations on the words and their corresponding sticky notes. We don’t know where this journey will take us. It is a very personal, individual creative journey for each of us.
A fun journey into (y)our own creative self.

Boris

Taking plastic places.
Exploring my inner child and following Me2’s wanderlust into untold stories for generations to come.
100% Stuck In Plastic.