Thanks for the reference, Daniela. I will look it up. What you say about state-of-flow being a "cool concept to throw around" also reminds me of how often nowadays you hear about wabi-sabi without people really understanding what it's about.
The state of flow is a concept developed in the 70s by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist, and I'm halfway through reading his first book. It is really interesting stuff, but has become just a cool concept to throw around.
check out Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.”
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".
I can say I had this experience last month on a trip to make landscapes. I made about 70 exposures over three days, no distractions, finding my pictures easily and shooting away with my Hasselblad. That came pretty close to "pure bliss."
I can say I had this experience last month on a trip to make landscapes. I made about 70 exposures over three days, no distractions, finding my pictures easily and shooting away with my Hasselblad. That came pretty close to "pure bliss."
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.
My statement wasn't cynical.It's terrible to be cynical but the trouble is that it works on so many occasions that it can be positively dangerous to give it up
Isn't this the same as the Zen of Skiing, the Zen of Archery, the Zen of whatever type books?
How about the Zen in the Art of Photography.
My statement wasn't cynical.
What if you never read a book or never had an art lesson, does that make you less creative?If you are interested in the creative and idea generation aspects of this, check out Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.”
Then you get bastards like me: no books, no lessons, just internet and full steam ahead, summoning flow states on command: repair or gardening, or learning new stuff, or just doing photography - regardless the activity, it comes from the ability to 100% focus on and engage with something you truly enjoy or must do with such an intensity, that it doesn't leave a place to worry about anything else like at all. Videogames too: give me God Of War, The Last Of Us and all the classic epic games, and see you a week later or soWhat if you never read a book or never had an art lesson, does that make you less creative?
Not the same but there are some intersections, primarily about the focus of one’s attention.
I read the article and I'm afraid it didn't relate to me in the 35 years I shot professionally.
But then I'm probably odd.
Then you get bastards like me: no books, no lessons, just internet and full steam ahead, summoning flow states on command: repair or gardening, or learning new stuff, or just doing photography - regardless the activity, it comes from the ability to 100% focus on and engage with something you truly enjoy or must do with such an intensity, that it doesn't leave a place to worry about anything else like at all. Videogames too: give me God Of War, The Last Of Us and all the classic epic games, and see you a week later or so
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 can understand your frustration with the vagueness of some concepts related to creativity. This is a huge topic of discussion in my field, art therapy. While things are changing, we often lack the evidence-based and quantitative data that communicates to others -in that seemingly preferred language- how much our work contributes to mental health. Thankfully, neuroscience is becoming a ally in that regard. The perception of our field is already benefiting from it since others can better understand the depth of what we do with the help of brain scans, for exampleMany thanks @Daniela for filling us in on this. I'm not too well at home in the field of psychology, so wasn't familiar with the concept as it appears in this discipline. I do vaguely remember it having been abducted into creativity research, much of which I have always found annoyingly vague from a conceptual viewpoint. I suspect that perhaps also in the field of psychology there has been criticism on concepts of this vagueness, given how this field has developed since the 1980s or so, into a much more (sometimes perhaps overly so) evidence-based and quantitative direction, which favors very crisp conceptualization (sometimes at the cost of construct validity, interestingly).
I can understand your frustration with the vagueness of some concepts related to creativity. This is a huge topic of discussion in my field, art therapy. While things are changing, we often lack the evidence-based and quantitative data that communicates to others -in that seemingly preferred language- how much our work contributes to mental health. Thankfully, neuroscience is becoming a ally in that regard. The perception of our field is already benefiting from it since others can better understand the depth of what we do with the help of brain scans, for example
Just got my copy of Csikszentmihalyi’s Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Extremely interesting, takes me in directions I did not expect. Will be my summer reading.
Ordered it online, btw. Did not want to embarrass myself trying to pronounce his name in front of a bookstore vendor...
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