Why do I create?

I’ve been asking myself this question a lot over the past few weeks.

Recently a friend told me about a contest going on right now for the John Chervinsky Emerging Photographer Scholarship contest, which “seeks to provide a watershed moment in the professional lives of emerging photographers, providing them with the support and encouragement necessary to develop, articulate and grow their own vision for photography.” My interest peeked, I began to research more about the contest and discovered that as part of the submission guidelines, each entry requires an artist’s statement to accompany our work. In the past, I’ve always considered the fact that I like to tell stories enough to answer the question of why I create, and so put off writing an artist’s statement for many years. My reluctance to write one also revolved around these three facts:

  1. I didn’t really see the need to, since I don’t have gallery representation and haven’t been in any shows yet.
  2. I hate writing. Obviously. I’m a photographer.
  3. I had no idea where to even begin.

Given that I no longer had any good excuses to creating an artist’s statement, I resigned myself to the necessity of it and began reading through all the googled results of “how to write an artist’s statement.” While scanning through several how-to’s and guidelines, I began to notice a trend, with each guide asking one of these three questions: “why do you make what you make,” “what inspires your work,” or “what influences your work?”

This may seem a little dumb for an artist to be saying, but I actually had to think for a minute before answering.

Each image I create is almost never just a simple photograph. Occasionally I will create an image that exists just for beauty’s sake, but more often they tell a story of emotion or life experiences. As a young child, I would always create stories in my head, pretending I was a traveler discovering hidden worlds in the woods behind my cousin’s house. I can remember many mornings lying in my bed, creating the ending to stories that had begun in my dreams.

As much as I loved storytelling, however, I never had the talent to be able to write them down. When I discovered fine art and conceptual photography at the age of 21, though, I realized I could take my existing love for portrait and landscape photography in a direction that would finally allow me to create a tangible production of the things that had always been floating around in my head.

And so my path as a conceptual and fine art photographer began.

I believe I am passionate about what I create because it allows me to take emotions and experiences, and create beauty where there may not necessarily appear to be any. I find joy in creating an environment of comfort and beauty. My love for DIY projects clearly shows this, but I think this has also extended into my photography, especially in the last few years. Lessons that were hard to learn and experiences I wouldn’t want to repeat have become photos that I’m proud of and give me peace.

I do have to confess, though, that pure nerdiness also serves as a huge influence in my creative process.

While my experiences and emotions help me create the story, the inspiration for the styling mostly comes from the books I have read and the movies and tv shows I have watched. I am a self-confessed fantasy nerd and love all things magic and whimsy. As much as I would love to say that my bookshelf is currently filled with moving autobiographies and self-help books, I’ll be honest and say that it’s about 90% epic fantasy.

Because of this, though, my photography is 100% me.

My photography is a collection of the eccentricities and intricacies that make up Madeline and my many interests, experiences, emotions, and storytelling all play an equally important role in creating the worlds I have in my images. Driven by a desire to create a path of beauty and joy to take us through life, I create not just because it brings me peace and happiness, but also because I hope for others to see the beauty and joy in their lives, no matter their circumstances.

 

Chloe-1

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!” – William Butler Yeats