Persistence Leads To Mastery

The My Modern Met website often presents articles on creativity. In a recent email newsletter, author Pinar Noorata reasoned how improvement in art is often connected to long hours of persistent work. Apparently, some lessons can only be learned through the experience of working with the materials. Although the piece gave examples from painting, perhaps the basic principal also applies to the various forms of photography-based art.

Take, for example, late 19th century Armenian-Russian painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. He achieved fame for his ability to represent so many of the aspects of ocean waves-intensity, motion, texture, energy, translucency, color, filtered light, etc. Noorata notes the paintings have a realistic, magical quality. His technique was developed to this high level as he worked to produce over 3,000 marine scenes in which the waves were featured. (See the example below and more in Noorata’s article.)

So, the next time you find yourself wondering “Why am I making yet another image of a rock/tree/wave?”, remember Aivazovsky. And expect the work to lead to new learnings and unanticipated improvements in your technique.