Your mental state is key to a successful photography career, says Canon research
Your mental state is key to a successful photography career, says Canon research
New research shows that a "state of flow" is crucial in maintaining momentum when working as a photographerwww.digitalcameraworld.com
Won't say anything about the article. Curious to read how people will respond to it.
I tried to read the article.
I haven't been around a lot of "career photographers" much in recent years, but as far as I can remember, not once did any of them refer to ever enjoying a "feeling of pure bliss and unadulterated focus".
Probably more concerned about making money.
That and making clients happy and turning them into repeat customers.
Satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment - yes.
A feeling of making progress - yes.
Bliss? Nah!
And I'm also very open to the very real possibility (perhaps even likelihood) that the actual research is pretty insightful - just that it's reported in a very informal manner in which all of its merits are lost.
Very interesting and thorough analysis, koraks. I had the same question regarding how the article relates to the actual research. I tried finding it on the Canon website but couldn't.
I tried to read the article.
I haven't been around a lot of "career photographers" much in recent years, but as far as I can remember, not once did any of them refer to ever enjoying a "feeling of pure bliss and unadulterated focus".
The net result, after I retired from those trades, is that I rarely go to the theatre and hardly ever watch TV. So, my experience would suggest that the enjoyment gained from practicing a craft you like is often spoiled by the pressures of doing it for profit.
Being self-employed easily was one of the most risky/stupid endeavor I engaded in. It requires a steady flow of sizeable income to offset benefits and social security payments provided when you're an employee, and I didn't get nowhere near that. I had plenty of time, but ended up abusing it, fell deeper into depressive state.
Self employment requires skill to sell yourself - I'm rather poor at it, coming from low self-esteem. It requires that you step onto a path of burning out, which I did.
A hell I brought onto myself to see what'll happen, what I'll learn. Mental state it is absolutely. A forbidden fruit for those with fragile/depressive state.
Currently I'm employed as a PC technician/tech/sound/light guy, a one-man band at schol, and it's a paradise compared to what I had being self-employed. No stress, no worries about finance - that's taken care off and paradoxically - I have more time/energy to explore and engage with photography. A healthier lifestyle with all the perks Vs no perks and self employment hell on earth.
The problem with research like this, and in particular conclusions formulated along the lines of "it requires being in a state of flow to be a successful photographer", is that it tends to be oxymoronic or tautological. It's not a matter of 'getting yourself in a state of flow' and then success as a photographer will ensue. The reverse is actually probably more likely - that the sense of being successful enforces that feeling of satisfaction that apparently coalesces with this 'state of flow'.
This is apart from other grave conceptual problems, such as:
* Lack of an academically sound definition of the core concept; i.e. what 'flow' constitutes is likely influenced deeply by the different (dare I say, idiosyncratic) conceptions the respondents and the researchers have of the concept.
* Lack of emphasis, especially in the linked article, on confounding variables and otherwise relevant contextual variables.
* Lack of rigidity in demonstrating internal validity; i.e. making a convincing case that the supposed causality in reality holds true as portrayed in the research.
To put some of the above in more understandable language, I think this report fails to convince because a number of other things may be going on. For instance, there may be all sorts of factors that result in the same sense of being in that 'state of flow' (whatever the heck that means exactly) as well as career/business success. Think about having a solid education, good social network support, good social skills etc. that are rewarding in themselves and tend to contribute to professional performance.
If you strip off all the romantic and imprecise formulation, what you end up with in a story like this is a conclusion along the lines of "successful photographers experience job satisfaction". These are constructs (professional success, job satisfaction) that are at least measurable, are reasonably well-understood and conceptually distinct. But the conclusion is also one that adds no value whatsoever on top of what we have already known for many, many years.
My main qualm with an article like this is that ultimately, it doesn't help anyone. That there's such a thing as "flow" is nice, and it does have some academic relevance (I think there's some research in the area of creativity that has tried to give some substance to it). But 'knowing' that successful photographers experience this flow is practically almost meaningless. It's not going to help anyone to strive for that ill-defined sense of 'flow' in order to become a successful photographer.
At best, the reaction this article can then trigger is something like "well whaddayaknow" - and that's that.
Had they presented this as a blog or a column, I might have been less critical.
And I'm also very open to the very real possibility (perhaps even likelihood) that the actual research is pretty insightful - just that it's reported in a very informal manner in which all of its merits are lost.
Disclaimer: I've supervised, coached and assessed between 100 and 200 (honestly I never bothered to count) thesis students and/or their works, varying from bachelor's to PhD level, with a great variety of topics and an emphasis on qualitative research methods. Topics that I have dealt with in this context include for instance job satisfaction, creativity and entrepreneurship, although I consider none of these my specific expertise. This background has certainly heavily biased my response and probably has made me more critical than I ought to be, given the effort put into projects like these.
The state of flow is a concept developed in the 70s by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist
The author congratulates coincidence with causality.
But I don't expect measures taken to protect internal validity (in its meaning of accurately representing causality; not in the meaning of construct validity, in which sense it is also often used) would be discussed in a popular media report on the research. So maybe there's more and better work done that we don't get to see (yet).
I wouldn't expect much in depth analysis on psychological states in an article in Digital Camera World. The article is just fluff. The writer, however, did meet her daily word quota.
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