Everyone is different. Every photographer’s (or really, anyone’s) goals should be their own, as should the road to those goals.

Reading about how another photographer ‘got there’ or ‘made it’ (whatever that means exactly) does not always help us carve out our own road faster or better. Only in rare cases it does, if they are generous enough to let us in on the process of it, on both the bad days and the good ones. A great example is this blog by David duChemin, one of my favorite photographers and educators. Most of the times though it doesn’t, and we are better off charging ahead with full conviction to forge our own path.

Trained as a scientist, I am all for standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before us (paraphrasing Isaac Newton here). We get to learn a great deal about how to create great images from those who have mastered the art.

But when it comes to our path, what we choose to do with our creativity and vision, what photography means to us and why we do it, that path is our own.

Right now I am on a winding but beautiful forest path developing my photographic vision and identity, where I usually can’t see past the next turn. And that is perfectly fine  — for me personally, the path is the whole point.

Forest Path

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