Don’t Try To Stand Out From The Crowd; Avoid Crowds Altogether.
The title of this post is taken from chapter 12 of the book “Ignore Everybody” and 39 other keys to creativity. From Author Hugh Macleod.
I like this book because the author is very honest and straight to the point and i agree with almost all his thoughts on creativity.
Basically what he says is that if you want to excel in anything you better not try to compete with anybody, find your own way, style or system, in photography you will have to find your own type of photography, it will have to have a twist to it that will be your own, to imitate the great photographers of the past or present is a big mistake.
Some years ago when HDR came out everybody started making HDR photos, it was the thing of the moment, now it has faded away and you don’t see too many of them.
Forget about going with the crowd like Macleod says, or competing with the crowd better focus all your attention on doing your own thing.
Mr. Gilbert K Chesterton a very famous writer from the early 20th century said “ I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite”
Mr. Chesterton was a very intelligent person to have done that because by listening to the advice he knew what other writers were doing or what the trend was in writing so he just went and did the opposite and by doing so he created his own style that did not have competition.