Saturday, July 10, 2010

inspiration ...

As you read this i should be somewhere between my home in western Germany & Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. Am spending a week with one of my closest friends & her sister-in-law before she moves back to the states. This is a girls only, fun filled action packed vacation full of food, history & shopping. Oh & yes the camera came along too! 


To keep you occupied when i'm gone i have a series of posts lined up, by some wonderful people (more about them later) on the subject of "Inspiration", starting with me! 


& i have absolutly no clue where to start with this topic ... i mean to me it's just a thing that i get randomly (in the shower, driving the car, eating dinner & often at moments when the camera isn't handy). It's funny that i'm trying to find inspiration to write about inspiration! Anyways i did what i do when i get stuck ... search the internet (which we could possible add to my list of things that give me inspiration). I learnt that the word "inspiration" literally means "breathed upon" (how cool is that). Poets such as Shelley & Coleridge believe inspiration came to them in the wind or in visions ... I'll tell you Freud's ideas or Marxist theory but they are really not as pretty (& i am an "artist" after all). The internet also lets me look at pretty pictures which i am a big fan on (go figure).

So now we get down to the nitty gritty ... what inspires me?


1. Women such as Dickie Chapelle who was fearless, a one of a kind & incredible lady. She opened up doors for women in combat photography & she did it with guts & in style (pearl earrings in Vietnam ...). 


2. World renouned photographers such as William Eggleston & Martin Parr who introduced me to photographing the random things we see every day, bold colours, simple composition & interesting angles. Ansel Adams for the sheer beauty of his work, & Richard Avedon for putting the sole focus on the subject, no distracting from the people in front of his lens. 

3. & more recently the work i am seeing on etsy, fine art photography that flows over into all kinds of genres, pictures that don't stay in the box. & the people who go along side them who are kind, & smart & looking to succeed in a an unforgiving industry. You see a photograph & you know what you like or don't like & sometimes you walk away with an idea, maybe it was the angle they shot out or the way the light falls but it's calling out to you to try it & not copy but make it your own. 

4. i am also inspired by other artists around me working in different mediums ... graphics, screen printing, textiles ... the list in endless, & their skills amazing. Also a little envious of this one, taking classes is on my list of things to do.


5. Friends & family, movies & books, the landscape & my home.

So maybe the answer to the question is that everything around me inspires me. The small, simple, hidden, delicate & tourist inspire me ... random, unique & interesting things inspire me. Everything & anything inspires me to take pretty pictures, achieve my dreams & be the best i can (well try to). 

ps. this bowl of ice cream inspired me (not to mention tasting really really good)!

1 comment:

  1. You were right darling, we did write similar posts... I guess great minds do think alike :)
    Have a great time in the South of France. I am not jealous at all... AT ALL... (just a little... a lot!)

    ReplyDelete