The Joy of Taking

They say that everyone should simultaneously have both a mentor and a protégé - a concept based on the ying and yang of giving and taking.

Going one step further, I would add that the relative balance of give and take should be dynamic over a creative person’s life.  Specifically, I find comfort in the notion of taking inspiration from other artists / nature when younger and ultimately giving back to other artists / nature when older.  

However, what happens when the balance of give and take becomes skewed? What if another person deliberately went out of their way to copy your work? What if he/she copied your website, or asked for advice and then pasted it verbatim into his/her body of work?  Surely, that’s not ‘inspiration’, that’s theft.

Well, all of those said points have occurred recently and although I won’t name names here for various reasons, the majority of transgressions have come from other photographers; particularly those from the ‘light-fingered’ internet generation.

In their defence, and as I have said previously, a creative endeavour cannot commence without inspiration and I also looked to the pantheon of other artists / photographers when I started out.  However, I like to think that I ‘returned the favour’ over time; possibly by name-checking them in my book, writing about them in my blog, buying products from them, forwarding business opportunities directly to them, taking about them at exhibitions etc etc.   Those of you who have met in me in person will know this is abundantly true.

In the increasingly competitive world of landscape photography, I have come to the conclusion that reciprocal manners are not always going to be so forthcoming.  So, in the coming months we’ll be changing the website around slightly to let allow the silent majority of genuine followers / clients access to the best and freshest of material, whilst trying to avert the gaze of the nefarious minority.

In the meantime, and having just come back from a Watercolours exhibition at the Tate Gallery, I myself will continue taking inspiration from others whilst simultaneously offering help to anyone who is kind enough to ask for humble advice.  In the words of Winston Churchill “...we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Stay tuned.