Covid Freedom and Being Creative… or not! by Francois Desjardins

Feeling totally uncreative, with more time available, I was just bouncing around social media and the web, reading and listening to a variety of artists describing their practice and the challenges of striving for originality in photography. Some seasoned masters speak of their structured approach and the many failures. Others describe their chaotic practice with the odd accidental image where they got lucky!  

A thought that one of the artists mentioned and that, in time, resonated with me was the idea of striving to “make a lot of bad art”!  Yes, intentionally producing what one thinks is a bad photograph, or better yet, many bad photographs.  This eliminates the pressure of creating something that is “pretty” or, heaven forbid, something that other people would like!  You just try to break all the rules! 

Not a new idea, but one that can help shake things up! 

Shoot a lot, do different, aim for terrible!!!!  Who knows what you will get ;-).  If nothing else, it is entertaining and you can always delete!

COVID isolation meant more solo canoe time.  Great for relaxing but somehow difficult to see something new or exciting, or “original”!  Sooo….

Collectif members, send an image (or a few) of very recent work to cagac.ca@gmail.com with up to 100 words describing what you did, materials used, inspiration, etc. Maybe share how you’re feeling & how creativity helps.

As Francois shares, sometimes we just don’t feel it yet something interesting can arise! We’d like an informative, inspiring show & tell. Writers, send us poetry, lyrics, a short piece or excerpt.