Idea –
Photography has always been my outlet. Though with all things that bring me joy, I feel a lot of pressure to make each element of my photos perfect.
When I want to make something “perfect,” I hyper-fixate on every element of making it so. Unfortunately, this typically drives me into a huge creative block.
Thanks for reading Jack’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Luckily, I’ve seen many creators fighting back against their creative blocks and beginning photo prompt challenges. Most notably I’ve been following Courtenay
Pipkin’s “a year in self portraits” newsletters, taking the prompts from @thisisemilyjoan’s 52 self-portrait prompts.
Both Pipkin and Joan have aided my creative process and pushed me to search for my own style of “prompt posting.”
I often love looking to create “mood boards” or “inspiration boards” out of magazine clips, but why not try and make it through a series of photos?
So in short, I will attempt to launch a mood board that consists of the photographs I take. Whether they are from the same shoot or random times I fight through my bag to grab my camera and take shots of something I find captivating, I will create a thoughtfully formatted online “board” of my creations.
What I aim to achieve –
Every time I take a break from photography, I always feel this sickening downward spiral of my creativity. As if I am losing all the spark in my creative bones.
If I keep consistent with creating my own mood boards for my work, it is my hope that I can not only increase my skill in the art form but engage my mind to keep pushing for new creative ideas I can spill out through a lens.
I know I am not going to be as consistent as doing this every week. I would make myself go crazy from the pressure of possibly missing a week.
So this “challenge” will be as laid back as possible, but here for me to find a new adventure and reach a creative sponge for my mind to soak up.
Think of this newsletter as a journal, with my own photographs revealing my mood or aspirations within the time it took to create my piece.
Anyone is more than welcome to hop on to this idea. I know I am not the only one who struggles to find the time and motivation to be as creative as I wish and know I can be.
Letting creativity guide me, rather than being engulfed in wondering if I’m making perfection is the central aim of this personal project.
The Mood –
Fairly recently, I have been trying to take in life much slower than I had been. Most notably, I have been reflecting on my childhood and how much I look to nature to gain positivity in everyday tasks.
The mood I wanted to channel with my first mood/vision board was “sentimental nature.”
This consists of trees that resemble those I used to climb in my backyard on warm Appalachian afternoons. Visions of the sky becoming a beautiful mix of white mist and rich baby blue like the ocean I would jump into with such gust and freedom.
When I search for the feeling of freedom I think of warm cozy hues of firelight illuminating the darks of the night on our creeky porch during a power outage. I see laughter and grass-stained knees from rolling in the freshly mowed lawn.
Nature unlocks what it felt like to be my most authentic self, a child. Carefree and wondrous, eager to take capture of the world. Now I search to capture those moments through a lens other than just my eyes.
The Process –
I wanted to center my final product on the art of cropping; something I have always engaged in but wanted to take another step further.
Cropping an image to frame the full subject is typically the most common form of cropping. The standard if you will.
With this project, I wanted to formulate the cropping to only engage with parts of the subject, focussing on textures and movements rather than just fitting the subject within a box.
To ease my way into this long-run project, I wanted to begin by using photos from one of my past shoots—one of my favorites being a trip with friends to Harper’s Ferry, WV.
Moving through the quaint town embraced by mountains connected me to my small self in a way I had never before felt.
After that August day, I knew I had dreams of creating a project like this to center around those feelings; ones I can’t quite describe but can use the photos to speak for me. I let my kid version take hold of my camera.
Growing up in Appalachia, being connected to the mountains, streams, and trees has always been a given. I constantly find this being reflected in my photography.
I took to cropping my photos as I remember them in memories. I used the ones I remember looking at again and again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming when I clicked the shutter of my camera.
As I cropped each photo, I took scale into account. Wondering how the smaller version of myself would have seen these images in real-time. Colors of green, blue, brown, orange, and yellow all flared out at me. The vibrance of nature.
I used Canva to create the digital scrapbook-look for my mood board. Not only did I want the look of it to seem hand-made, but I wanted to include some words along with my photos to direct my viewers to a pathway for their thoughts.
The Results -
Finally, here is my finished mood board for the week.
2/10/24 - Sentimental Nature
Takeaways -
Not only was crafting this piece such a reflective and freeing experience, but it also gave me a closer appreciation for the photos I had moved on from.
In future mood board letters, I will task myself with taking new photos, putting my mind to wander the world under a different emotion. However, I take deep appreciation for being able to revisit old work and make something new of it.
I encourage you all to reach out to yourselves and brave a personal project like this. Find those stories within yourself that you wish to tell through your art forms and splatter them across whatever canvas you see best fit.
Find the freedom you thought you lost and take hold of it.
Go out and create.
Share
Leave a comment
Thanks for reading Jack’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
