On Inspiration-Letter to Johnny Kerr

Since I started following your blog and your work, it has been clear to me that you hold yourself and your work to high standards. Not just in a technical aspect but in your artistic vision and your personal development as well. You keep a high level of self-awareness and intention in the things you do, that I must admit has inspired me in more ways than one. Your discipline in this will undoubtedly feed your work and make you better for it.

In the theme of inspiration, it’s a subject I’ve also pondered a lot. I confess I have been a victim of the romanticized view on it, waiting for inspiration to grab me and take me along, which had paralyzed me from doing the work, which in turn led me to believe I wasn’t cut out for it.

Fortunately this notion has been dispelled already, but your ethical view points and your transparency have reaffirmed reoccurring themes I have come to know and heard phrased in several different ways.

An interview comes to mind, with an old school Mexican reporter of some fame from a previous time. While answering questions about his career, the interviewer casually says that the reporter has had his fair share of good luck in his career. To this Jacobo Zabludodsky (the reporter being interviewed) answers: “Yes, but you see good luck is an old lady that will only cross your path, if you get up to work every day at 5AM”.

Another phrase I’ve come across is ”Inspiration is for amateurs, professionals work” aimed at those who would wait for inspiration to strike in order to produce. Curiously if inspirations strikes and you haven’t been consistently working at your craft, chances are you are going to be severely limited trying to channel that creative energy effectively. You’d fall between the cracks of the creative gap.

To this point I can also add, that "inspiration" in itself is a complex phenomena, that usually requires several different things to coincide in order to burst, and if you're not going out, doing the work... well the less likely and frequent you'll get to experience it.

This is mostly on Inspiration as the call to create. Another connotation of Inspiration you talk about has to do with what “fills the well” as Julia Cameron phrases it.  What feeds your vision, your person, your aesthetics, etc. and how you translate these sources of inspiration into your own craft. No one lives outside this world, therefore no one is cut off from its influence, to pretend otherwise is to lie to oneself. Alternatively though, granting the world too much importance can drown out our individual voice. It’s a fine line to walk, recognizing the others in ourselves while still being aware of the unique conjugate of circumstances each of us are.

Don’t know of the photographer in question, and how his/her “inspiration” evolved, but it does beg the question if the source of inspiration changes over time, why would he/she exclude parts of it? There is a lot of formulaic thinking going around, seeking shortcuts to x, y or z and one can’t help but wonder if this change isn’t due to some hype like that. I can only highlight, that the fact you noticed, speaks highly of your intent on not only producing art, but consuming art as well.

Engaging with the main theme of your post, as it relates to inspiration, I would like to share with you something from my own personal inspiration:

Before actively engaging with photography, I knew little of other photographers and the history of photography. As I took photography more seriously, I knew I had to start consuming it as well.  My wife, who had been more present and engaged in the art scene than I, told me I might enjoy certain other creators that she thought my work resembled in some way. One of those creators was you, Johnny Kerr. I took my wife’s advice and connected with you on social media, and found a well-rounded artist, an excellent photographer, and exceptional human being.

I claim you and another local photographer, as the first photographers I felt inspired by and among my first connections to the world of photography.

Therefore, in the spirit of accountability, I chose the picture that heads this post because when I was finished with it, I grappled with publishing it or not, as I could certainly see in it, direct correlations to the work you've done in architecture photography. 

At that time, I wasn't going to publish it because of its likeness to yours, but then I took a step back and analyzed the process to which I arrived at this photo, and I could honestly and sincerely tell myself that I had taken it, as I take my other pictures: I noticed something that appealed to me as I was walking down the street, I took my camera out, approached it, took a closer look, and viewed it through the lens of my camera from different angles, playing with its elements and perspective, taking several shots along the way....

Now, I do have one of your calendars hanging on my kitchen wall, so while the process I took to arrive at this picture was my own, I can't and won't deny that your photographs have inspired certain aesthetics in me, perhaps making this building jump out at me while I was wlaking by it.  

Having said this, I just want to say thank you for your craft, openness, artistic vision and work ethic.

This post is in response to Kerr's post:

http://johnnykerr.com/inspiration-and-accountability/