The essence of creative process

The other day I thought about shooting something new, something I have never even thought of shooting. But how can one realize what that is if he never thought about it? When going through the portfolios of established photographers I was often amazed by how unique and original their ideas were. But is it so? Have you ever wondered yourself how do you come up with new ideas and how do you "create new"? What triggers your imagination?

To avoid becoming too general let's focus on photography. Before I proceed I want to make it clear that I am not trying to investigate “who stole from whom”, but rather to underline the beauty of synergy that (possibly) was created between the minds of two artists separated by time and distance. 

Without further ado I want to present to you two pictures that were taken 13 years apart and at the opposite poles of ideology: one was taken in New York, USA by Arnold Newman in 1946 and the other one--in Moscow, USSR by Ida Kar in 1959. Yet these two portraits are united by one theme--these are portraits of composers, pianists Igor Stravinsky and Dmitri Shostakovitch.

  Portrait of I. Stravinsky by A. Newman, New York City, 1946

Portrait of D. Shostakovitch by I.Kar, Moscow, 1959

I hope you also noticed how similar do the piano lids on both pictures look like. A. Newman, commissioned by Harper's Bazaar, intentionally went for the trick with piano's lid and made it look like a sign known to musicians as bemolle. As A. Newman said himself in his interview with Grace Schaub:

" I designed the whole picture around my concept of Stravinsky: the harshness, the beauty, the quarter note—all of which reflect and express the same strength and beauty of his music. "

Though I do not know what was going through I. Kar's mind when making a portrait of D. Shostakovitch, I do see the similarity between the portraits and sincerely hope that the impulse produced by A. Newman was received 13 years later by I. Kar. The fact that A. Newman implemented such an idea first by no means makes work of I. Kar less valuable. On the contrary. Such synergy is startling. It also confirms (at least for me personally) that ideas of our own, especially those that we think are really our own, are in fact synthesized under influence of other people's ideas. I admit that in this particular case like a little kid reading a book I  think up the missing part of the story, but they say that it is important to preserve an inner child.

Very often, especially when I am out of gas I look at other people's work and try to re-create it or make it look as similar as possible. The beauty of the whole thing is that once I get the ball rolling I find myself working on something that does not necessarily resemble the work I attempted to re-create and, most probably, is completely new to me. I doubt that I will put it in words any better than A. Newman, so here is what he said to Grace Schaub:

" I’m forever looking and always working out my next picture—even when I don’t know what it is. I may come up with preconceived ideas, but they may change when the physical circumstances present themselves..."

Thank you very much for your attention! Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below!

P.S. The portrait of I.Stravinsky by A. Newman was rejected by Harper's Bazaar. I. Stravinsky and A. Newman never met before the photo-shoot.