Don't forget to ask yourself questions
Time flies, I took a break, and blogging seems to become a seasonal thing if you looked at the last time I posted something on my blog. It has been challenging not to do my regular portrait shoot, so I went back to my roots and did a lot of drawing and illustration. The good that came out of it was, I allowed myself to take time and think. The other good news is, I upgraded my Fujifilm x100s to a Fujifilm x100v!
All that time off from photography made me realize one thing; I hadn't been shooting for myself. Looking through the photos I took, I was shocked to see how frequently I made social media images instead of doing it for myself. The reason I took those images was that I knew they were eyecatching. Those were photos more likely to be liked and shared. They were not created because there was something deeply personal. I have been on social media since the beginning of it. I fell into the trend and shot a bunch of images that were more suit the algorithms. What worse was, I even noticed I started to shoot in 4x5 format even though my cameras are in 3x2 or 4x3 ratios. My mind was accustomed to composing images in 4 x 5 ratio because that's the best format for sharing on Instagram. I became a social media content machine without aware of it.
Being detached from Instagram, I freed myself from becoming an unpaid employee. For years, I spent a tremendous amount of time creating content for the platform without benefiting from it. I have a website, but ironically, I spent more time on social media than creating better content for my site. Years of abiding by the platform's rules and algorithms, I lost sight of who I am.
Now the world is pretending to be normal, and everyone is trying to live life instead of worrying about losing life; I like to get back to photography slowly without getting killed by the virus. There are questions I need to ask myself before picking up a camera again.
Are you creating for yourself or social media?
Will you be happy even when nobody likes what you create?
Does the image speak to you?
What is the purpose of your creation?
Do you really need social media?
Why does an image appeal to you?
Can you allow yourself to make mistakes?
Lastly, I would tell myself to embrace imperfection. Although I am a control freak when making art, I found myself attracted to work that shows flaws. We are all imperfect one way or another, and that's what uniquely beautiful about us and our world.
Let's slow down our minds once a while, take a break from social media, and create work that means something to us. Don't let the numbers define you, or else your art can never escape the cage constructed by 1 and 0. Be fierce, be raw, and reach deep into your soul to create work that moves you, even if it triggers a range of emotions.
