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Take Your Photo Vitamin

photokaboom6 — the Photography Vitamin

Two Photography Fuels

Photographers need fuel to operate.

The two most powerful fuels in photography are recognition and passion.

The latter fuel, passion, will be discussed in detail below.

First, let's look at recognition briefly.

Recognition - The Ultimate Photography High

Recognition is a powerful motivator.

Douglas McGregor, in the classic Human Side of Enterprise, posited that recognition is a primary motivator.

During a first class, a student, Diana, remarked that she had been an avid photographer when she was in school.

Diana was the photographer of her social group.

Getting lots of recognition from her friends, Diana took lots of pictures.

Without the recognition, her camera languished.

Recognition is harder to come by once you're out of school, or not in the midst of a photography class.

You can get recognition from family and friends, contests, exhibiting, and connection with other photographers.

Passion, the second motivator, will be covered in detail here.

Passion - The Penultimate Photography High

Photographing your passion is the second most powerful motivator in photography.

If you've got a passion, you're more likely to have a direction and a destination, a goal.

If you take your photo vitamin, photokaboom6, you can find and enhance your photography passion.

For More Passion, Take Your Photo Vitamin

The photokaboom6 photo vitamin molecule has six parts.

We'll look at each one below.

Part #1 - Take Pictures

Jay Maisel Buried in Slides

It's obvious, take pictures!

But, most photographer's cameras are "low mileage."

You've got to take lots of pictures to ignite a passion.

Part #2 - Imitate

Lucien Clergue, Jean-François Lartigue,

Aaron Siskind, Manuel Alvarez Bravo,

André Kertész, Arles, 1976

Spotkania w Arles 2004

Imitate another photographer's work.

1) Find a hero.

2) Be like your hero.

3) Discover your photography identity.

Part #3 - Look

Look at photographs.

Go to NYC Photography Exhibits, photokaboom.com blog, and elsewhere.

Part #4 - Read

Read about photography.

Reading Pictures: A History of Love and Hate, by Alberto Manguel

A review: Read any good pictures lately?

A World History of Photography, by Naomi Rosenblum

Part #5 - Novelty

Be a baby.

When you were a baby, everything was new.

Do something different:

• Old/new

• Easier/harder

• Cheaper/expensive, frivolous/planned, safe/scary

• Or ?

Within one of these contexts:

• Equipment

• Technique

• Location

Physical, such as a studio, neighborhood

Cultural, such as attending the Hindu spring festival, Holi

Historical, such having your kids reenact the Boston Tea Party

• People unlike yourself

• Emotion, such anticipation, or ?

• Point of view, such as channeling Humphrey Bogart as a photographer, multiple perspectives as in Rashomon, cubism, as a person with a certain mind-set or mission, or ?

• Genre, such as portraiture, still life, landscape, street, scientific, etc.

• Theme, such as 36 Dramatic Situations, irony, redemption, schadenfreude, or ?

• Isms, such feminism, racism, impressionism, or ?

• Or ?

Part #6 - Find a Motivator In the Process

The best motivator—recognition—is found in the product of the process.

However, as discussed, recognition is hard to come by.

99.9999% of art photographers are not going to get much recognition.

Don't rely on the product for motivation.

Instead, identify an aspect of the process that motivates you.

For example:

"I can get away from thinking about work."

Yes, it may be something plain and simple, like the above.

Live in the process, as well as in the product.

Eating pie is great.

Making the pie is great, too.