Photographers like rules.
They like things to be in focus. They like perfect exposures. They like their compositions to follow the rule of thirds.
And all these things are fine.
Except when they stop mattering. Which is the case all too often when the camera ends up in the hands of an artist.
Photo artists might give a passing nod at the rules. (Rules aren’t hard to learn, after all. And they can even be helpful.) But hand an artist a camera and after a while he is apt to give those rules a miss and prove more concerned with creating something fresh, something unexpected, something new.
Or maybe the camera is operated within the rules, but then you take the resulting photos into Photoshop … and in there anything could happen.
Because when the conventions of traditional photography and photo editing take a back seat to art … well … you just never know.
That’s when rules get broken.
And breaking rules is okay. Especially if you’re hoping to create something that will last.
As General MacArthur once intoned: You will be remembered for the rules you break.
And the best artists — the most memorable artists — will be the ones who keep rules, bend rules, break rules, or make their own rules, however they see fit, and in the most interesting ways.
Ultimately, whether as a photographer or as an artist, playing by the rules keeps things safe. It does have that going for it.
But who wants to be safe all the time?
Forget safe.
Just be YOU.
Stop worrying about what anyone else might think or say. Go create however you want to create. Bend or break rules whenever you feel it’s in the service of your craft, in pursuit of your unique voice.
All of which is to say: Go approach your life as an artist with delicious abandon.
Just create.
Show us something that will move us.
Something that will challenge us.
Something that will make us remember you.
– Sebastian
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Note: The artist featured atop this post is Billa Bozem of Germany — an artist who I know will be long remembered. Her work is continually fresh and astonishing. And you can see more of it here: https://artboja.com/art/8rn7ir/