“I was feeling pretty low about my photography. I haven’t shot for what seems like a long time and was just feeling pretty low. Then I decided to get myself out of it by digging out some old photos and send them to an editor friend. I instantly heard back I got another cover!”
Getting in a funk, what I think of personally as lost my spark, is incredibly common! I speak from personal, repeated experience. Photography to be successful requires a personal, emotional commitment which has a price attached. It means inner reflection of the process, the progress we’ve made in our craft, art, visual storytelling, a look inside ourselves and that process often leaves us wanting. It makes photography incredibly difficult as the path forward has more than the normal challenges. Knowing this will come, not an if but when, how can we get past it? As my friend suggests, one great way is to simply make a success from something from our photographic past. I tend to use the Pavlof Dog theory of photography, let the camera click, hundreds of them, set my mind free and back to photography. I think the most important thing is to realize it can happen and does happen to us all and it’s not fatal to our photography. I always take some solace in knowing that only because I have been creative, producing, successful, is it possible to lose your spark.