There are weeks on end when I don’t feel like picking up my camera. How do I get over this mental block over photography?
Answer by: Chirodeep Chaudhuri, Photographer
Just because you are a photographer—professional or otherwise—doesn’t mean that you have to be shooting each and everyday. I don’t think that kind of compulsion or pressure has any advantage. For a photographer, the most crucial thing is to engage with his world, and to reflect. So, when you are suffering from a ‘photography block’, use that time to gain some understanding of the world—read a book, go for a walk in a neighbourhood you don’t often go to, stand on a street and watch people and overhear their conversation, hang out with friends who invigorate your mind…You get the drift?
“When you are suffering from a ‘photography block’, use that time to gain some understanding of the world.”
Your photography is your response to your world. To make it nuanced, you have to understand with some depth where you are. A creative block, as such, is not something to be worried about. It’s part of any creative process. It is meant to be frustrating. But then, the only thing you can do, to use an analogy, is to prepare the land well, sow good seeds, mix the manure (but carefully), and stay well prepared for the moment when the rains arrive. The rains, as we know, can sometimes be delayed.