Cameron Sterling

Strategies for New Photographers, by Cameron Sterling

Five ways to develop your creative voice.

1. Be kind, honest, and authentic to yourself because this will reflect in what you make. Embrace your early creative expressions knowing that it’s okay to not understand where they fit (or if they fit) with your goals at first. Exploring the unknown is where you will discover your self.

After the process of exploring, experiencing, and reflecting repeats itself a few times look for the feeling of being in control of your creative moments and aware of your intended audience or market. This leads to the mastery of your tools and technique, which is initially a barrier to the creative process. Making images to serve a purpose is a visually articulated expression of mindfulness. Using technique and mindfulness in concert is the challenge.

2. After a few experiences doing this you can begin to connect the dots of your interests and steer a course through your ongoing states of creative growth.

3. Network and collaborate. This will help you learn about your boundaries and how you can contribute across those boundaries to others.

4. Before starting a project consider who the audience is. Ask if your intent is to connect with an audience or simply explore ideas and technique for your own personal growth.

You can control to some degree what you show your audience about yourself, but you have less control over how your audience interprets this expression. It’s important to understand that these two perceptions are different and dynamic. Sometimes they’re in sync and sometimes they’re not.

5. Extracurricular classes and clubs are a great way to discover new visual subjects and to find mentors. There are also many great resources online for learning new skills to enable you to express your ideas and broaden your perspective. As you go about this be kind, curious, explore, reflect, and repeat.