The Doldrums or Not Being Engaged - Ideas

I want to thank the few who took the time to offer their thoughts on getting out of the doldrums or not being engaged. I sincerely appreciate the work and effort provided and believe the responses will be useful for all at some point.

I should start by being clear that I live by the philosophy of objectivism. I understand that while many align with me on this, there are others who do not. For those, I hope that we can politely disagree, because my response to a detailed series of questions from a wonderful supporter will be driven by that moral philosophy.

For those who do not know, objectivism is a moral philosophy based on the fact that reality exists outside of consciousness. Reality is, regardless of what you pretend to think is real. Objectivism holds that rationality is the only means to acquire and build knowledge eschewing mysticism, faith, and emotions as valid tools of cognition. Objectivism holds that you are accountable for your own existence and that you do not exist to benefit another over yourself and that they do not exist to benefit you over themselves. It also holds that governments must be small and have the sole function of protecting citizens against threats whether foreign or domestic and otherwise get out of the way.

I preface the article with this, because not to do so, would be potential misinformation.

Solutions

My friend Sam, who has a couple of years experience on me suggests that when stuck, to go outside and just listen to the birds. For him it opens the mind, creates peace and allows him to move past all the sludge. This sounds like a very good thing.

My friend Gary has an album of photos that he spends time with when he gets stuck. The photos are of the type that engage is mind, to create mental stories about the circumstances, the time, the place, the people and to encourage him to ask what he was thinking when he made those images. Given how few people ever look at their older work, I thought that this was a very interesting approach.

Long time club member Heather suggested that doldrums can be broken by changing up who you go out to photograph with. If your common practice is to go out with the same people and it’s not working, go on your own, or with different people. If you typically go on your own, find a few people with different ways of seeing and head out with them.

My friend Michael took a different approach. His character is to listen actively, to think and to respond, often with questions to help the person solve the problem themselves. He’s a very smart fellow. He references a number of articles and posts on the subject of getting out of a rut and after removing the demand for the deliver of a commercial product from the conversation (because it is a very different challenge) he gets to the meat of his thoughts. I will post his questions and how I react to them.

What is the specific problem you are facing?

For me, it is that I often think that I’ve already been there done that, and have too many images in history that already do nothing for me, why do it again, on the Einsteinian principle of doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is insane. I am not seeing things that warrant a shutter squeeze.

Are you trying to force yourself to do something you think you should love when you have no actual interest in doing it?

Most likely yes. Mike’s response to a yes, is ok, walk away, take a break, do something else that does get your blood going. Your desire to make images will return or it won’t. There’s no clock attached. If forcing yourself is making you unhappy, stop forcing things.

Where is the pressure and expectation that you should be creating something coming from? Do you believe you are failing by not doing so? Is there a sense of guilt for not doing it?

Societies, cultures, faiths and despots learned years ago the manipulative power of fear, pain and guilt. All have used some or all at some point and many still use them all today. Fear of being ostracized, or having committed a so called sin, the pain of not being part of some arbitrary group, or the guilt of not delivering to some fake expectation. These are all manipulations and while we may recognize them when thrust upon us, we have been ingrained since childhood to believe that we deserve pain, fear and guilt and so don’t see it when we do it to ourselves. We are often our own worst enemy, digging, picking, slashing and carving at our own self-worth. A true objectivist has a face with no pain, no fear and no guilt, and when one does sense those things particularly when self-inflicted, the trauma is real.

If it is not making you happy. Stop doing it, or berating yourself for not doing it. Perhaps you will come back around, perhaps not, but whatever happens is ok.

Yup, that’s the one for me at least. I’ve done this for a long time, and trained hundreds of people and internally believe that I am failing if I don’t keep it up. You make your own determination. I’ve put my cameras aside for the moment for personal use. I will still do client work because that is a different thing entirely.

Wrapping Up

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