How do I handle a lack of inspiration?

It happens to everyone, right? Even when you love what you do, there are days when inspiration just isn’t there. It’s not a matter of not wanting to, I love photography, but sometimes, I just don’t feel like picking up the camera.

No, no, here I’m talking about a lack of inspiration. You’re outside, you want to take photos, maybe you've been waiting for this moment for several days, caught up in a thousand other things. The desire was there, it was even building up. And then, the big day arrives, you finally have time for yourself, to create... and nothing. It doesn’t come.

My techniques

The first is walking. If you're familiar with my work, you know how central it is to my approach. In fact, I would even say that it’s a sine qua non condition to get into a state of availability, to truly see.

It’s a conviction I’ve had for a long time, but it becomes clear when I look back through my archives: very few images were taken close to home. In over ten years of practice, it can’t just be a coincidence.

And I don’t believe for a second in the idea that there’s nothing to photograph around me. It’s more that, like a diesel engine, I need time to warm up, for my perspective to sharpen, and for inspiration to kick in.

To sit and to observe - Anvers 2021

Like Ketchup

Walking helps me sort through my thoughts. I need that time to let go of the everyday concerns. Only after that can I truly focus on photography.

My second method is, paradoxically, the opposite of the first: it’s simply sitting down, often on a bench, and taking the time to observe. Usually, after a few minutes, things that had escaped my initial glance, like details or compositions, start to emerge.

What’s fascinating is that right after taking the first photo, everything flows almost effortlessly. It’s like the ketchup effect: at first, you shake it with no success, then suddenly, it all comes out at once.

Then, there are times when all the techniques in the world don’t work, and you head home. Until next time.