Having a creative job is the dream for many. Getting paid to do what you love is something you just can’t get tired of, right? Well, I’ll have to disagree.
First, I think there’s a big difference between working a creative job for yourself and doing it for someone else. I worked as a photographer for around 2 years. I was doing events mainly and sometimes portraits, and every now and again report photography for an NGO which included a lot of travelling.
I really hated the events. It was mainly the same 5-6 places. Even though, the people were usually different, I felt like they were always the same. What didn’t help was the fact that I’d work Friday and Saturday evenings, every single week. That meant that I was going to bed very late, exhausted, and I had to get up in the morning to edit and send the photos. Eventually I optimized my process, so it took significantly less time. I would go through the photos at the event itself when nothing was happening and delete the ones I didn’t like. Then, when I opened them up in Photoshop, I’d select them all and just put on the same settings. Finally, I’d go through the photos while still in camera RAW and do some adjustments. Even with that, though, I still hated it. At some point it felt like the time while I was at said event was standing still. The music was usually trash and I even had to deal with drunks every so often.
The other part of my job, the portraits was a bit better but far from perfect. Whenever I had a photo session, I did my research, brainstormed some ideas of what I wanted to do and met the model. I had to make sure I mainly take photos they would like and sometimes that was tricky.
The last part of what I did as a photographer was the NGO travelling part. That was usually good and sometimes even great. I got to travel to countries I never thought I’d visit and met a lot of people that way. What I didn’t like was when the project took part in Bulgaria and everything was happening inside. There just wasn’t a lot going on.
Even if I could leave only the NGO photos as my job, and it gave me enough money, there would still a big problem. My hobby had become a job… When that happens, you start to see it differently. You can’t relax after a tough day at work by going out and taking photos, because you did that at work. You can’t be as creative in street photography, as your mind is thinking of ideas that would only work at events and so on.
If all of that is not enough, there’s the moment when you just don’t feel creative. Everyone has heard of writers’ block. That doesn’t only happen to writers, it happens to all creatives. A moment comes, when you feel like your creativity is exhausted and you can’t think of anything new. That stresses you out, but you can’t take some time away from it, because it’s your job.
I remember I read a book about behavioral Economics called “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely (great book). There he said that the rich would pay to ride (a horse), because that’s what marks the different between wanting and having to do something. They wouldn’t get paid to ride a horse, though, because that would make it a job. I feel like the same principle can be applied for creative work. Or at least photography.
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