I am a huge believer in the creative process of photography that extends either side of the shutter click.

It begins with a passion, develops into a vision and what follows is often a beautiful struggle to get a version of that vision into a photo.

And as frustrating as it is, it’s a beautiful struggle.

In people photography it involves the humanity of a subject too, with all the wonderful variables and challenges that provides.

And that’s f’ing sacred.

After the click I truly believe in the connection to the process that manual culling provides. No AI assistance. Seeing the failures. Feeling them. Understanding and internalising them. So that next time that learning becomes part of your next photo, your next shoot.

And after the manual culling I truly believe in the artistry of editing. Manually. No AI assistance.

Efficiency isn’t everything. Some would say efficiency is at odds with true creativity and art.

Perfection is nothing.

So I saw this photo of a woman on a train running and looking up past the camera with a beautiful expression and her hair bouncing photogenically as she moved.

And for a moment I was inspired by that photography and that artists ability to so beautifully capture something so mundane.

But it wasn’t real was it.

So what’s the point.

I was tricked but I know how the trick was done so there’s no magic.

And deeper than that I can’t be inspired by the way it’s lit, framed, posed, or the technicalities of the image because it has no basis in actual reality. No basis in actual photography. There was no photographer-subject interaction so no way of being inspired by what transpired to create the photo.