Ideas for breaking out of a creative drought

• Hesitation is destruction.
• Addition is often a process of subtraction.
• Go as deep as you can with what you’re doing.
• Let your camera follow your life instead of having your life follow the camera.
• Think of photographs as compliments and love letters.
• Relationships are more important than photographs.
• Rejection is normal, don’t be afraid of it.
• Welcome failure because it leads to growth.
• Don’t worry about the answers, you’ll never find them until you embrace the questions.
• Success is a byproduct of something bigger than itself so don’t pursue it.
• Confront your anxieties and fears by leaving your comfort zone.
• Don’t repeat yourself.
• Don’t worry about your work being bad or good – completion is all that matters.
• Stay away from imitating others (know the difference between inspiration and imitation).
• Know yourself.
• Challenge everything and do so with humility.
• Your subconscious is like a secret factory, if you feed it good things than good things will probably come out.

• Stop thinking and go out and produce and produce and produce…
• Two weeks with a great mentor is probably equivalent to two years of school.
• What you surround yourself with will often dictate who you become.
• Photography is not about photography (photographs about photographs are boring).
• Examine your intentions carefully and stay true to the original idea.
• Make friends with people who aren’t photographers.
• Becoming a “great” photographer is a lifetime achievement.
• Sentimentality is the opposite of cynicism and try to keep both out of your work.
• Let your work breathe. When you have completed it, lock it away and come back to it at a later date with fresh eyes.
• Sometimes you need to let go in order to have something return.
• Everything is subjective.
• People are constantly re-writing their memory.
• Know when and when not to show your work to people. Give ongoing projects a healthy incubation period before sharing them.
• Go for walks when you feel stuck.
• Fake it until you make it!
• Always trust your gut.

- Peter McCollough