Discover your creative process!
The Artists Way
Julia Cameron's novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery. The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist.
From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors.
A revolutionary program for personal renewal, The Artist's Way will help get you back on track, rediscover your passions, and take the steps you need to change your life.
Look deeper
Feel the Fear & Do It Anyway
Jeffers discusses the crippling effects of fear in her personal life and explains how she formulated a course of action for conquering it. Her answers are simple, her course of action difficult only because it requires courage. She explains how fear is based on the uncertainty of change and the lack of positive self image.
I found this book really helpful to find ways to think about what and where I was holding myself back from what I could ultimately achieve. I also like the simplicity in which many concepts are discussed.
See how words & photography can align
More Than a Rock
More Than a Rock, 2nd Edition is a passionate and personal book about creativity and expression. In this series of over 70 brief essays, photographer and teacher Guy Tal shares his thoughts and experiences as an artist who seeks to express more in his images than the mere appearance of the subject portrayed. Following up on the success of the first edition, this revised edition contains updated imagery, a new essay in each of the book’s four sections―Art, Craft, Experiences, and Meditations―and is presented in a beautiful hardcover format.
Tal makes an argument to consider creative landscape photography―expressing something of the photographer's conception through the use of natural aesthetics―as a form of visual art that is distinct from the mere representation of beautiful natural scenes. Tal covers topics such as the art of photography, approaches to landscape photography, and the experiences of a working photographic artist. His essays also include reflections on nature and man’s place in it, living a meaningful life, and living as an artist in today’s world.
Go deeper and wider in your work
Perception & Imaging
When you look at an image, what do you see, think, and feel? How do you want your audience to react when they view your work? Unlike any other book, Perception and Imaging will give you an extensive understanding of how photography relates to art, design, advertising, psychology, and philosophy, as well as what makes photography unique among the image-making disciplines. Whether you are a beginner or a professional, this information will help you appreciate photography not simply as a mastering of technique and composition, but as a way of truly seeing, especially now in the digital age.
Go even deeper
Art & Visual Perception
Since its publication fifty years ago, this work has established itself as a classic. It casts the visual process in psychological terms and describes the creative way one's eye organizes visual material according to specific psychological premises. In 1974 this book was revised and expanded, and since then it has continued to burnish Rudolf Arnheim's reputation as a groundbreaking theoretician in the fields of art and psychology.
A lighter read full of good information
Big Magic - Creative Living Beyond Fear
With profound empathy and radiant generosity, Elizabeth Gilbert offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.
Unravel your processes
Wired to Create
Wired to Create offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people. Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking. Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes— like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration – to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity. Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people: Imaginative Play * Passion * Daydreaming * Solitude * Intuition * Openness to Experience * Mindfulness * Sensitivity * Turning Adversity into Advantage * Thinking Differently
Find that courage
The Courage to Create
What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms, rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement.
This book helped me to give myself permission to learn and to create. The ideas presented allowed me the opportunity to see my entire creative process differently. An easier read but one that will help you to put your creative process in perspective.
F-Stop Collaborate and Listen Podcast
Hosted by Matt Payne F-Stop is an amazing resource for photographers of all stages.
You will discover conversations with some of world's best landscape photographers, industry insiders, and more! The format for the podcast is a relaxed but in-depth conversation - touching on all types of topics relating to landscape photography, including workflow, becoming a professional full-time photographer, social media, conservationism, the business of photography, finding motivation to shoot, and more
https://www.mattpaynephotography.com/page/f-stop-collaborate-and-listen/
Vision & Light with Alister Benn
Alister has been teaching landscape photography since 2009 and it is his refreshing approach and questioning mind that have formed the foundation of a company that is pushing back against the same old approaches used for decades. If they worked, everyone would already be the perfect photographer they wanted to be, rather than searching for answers and asking if there is life to photography beyond popularity on the internet.
On Landscape Magazine
At its very core, On Landscape is a subscription based magazine dedicated to landscape photography. Most magazines also don’t have instant interactivity and community feedback either. And most magazines are only part landscape, usually mixed with the very different genre of wildlife photography.
Lenswork Magazine
Focus on images Four to six photographers showcased in print edition issue Anthology style, with portfolios like little "books within a book" Non-technical and non-academic Emphasis on the creative aspects of photography Beyond cameras and equipment, beyond film and chemistry, beyond pixels and technology lie the mysteries of the creative life shared by those who strive to communicate and express themselves clearly – fine art photographers, commercial photographers, amateurs and professionals.