How To Remain Inspired

Ok, guys, we just went through a more uncomfortable tutorial about failure, and I want to finish it with a nice little piece about inspiration.

If you are burned out at the moment, look here first. Also, we already had a whole tutorial about mental map of inspiration. I also will make another piece with your suggestions about how to get/keep inspired. Send them to aliona.kuz@gmail.com

For me, there are three types of inspiring material. First is staying inside the photography world and staying current:

• Every day I spend time on Pinterest, adding things to my ongoing board.
• I also spend time on Behance, not only at photography, but also in design, visual identity, and other related topics.
• Every week I try to visit one museum or gallery show - it's good for inspiration and networking
• When I was younger, I used to buy every French Vogue, occasionally also Italian and German. I tore out my favorite editorials and stored them in folders by topic. Sometimes I would spread them on the floor and look at them.

Second one: because my work is about stories and emotions, I take inspiration from other storytelling media: books, movies, songs, and so on. When I was younger, I read not even a full series of books but the full author's body of work: Strugatskie, Remark, Pelevin, Bulgakov, Hemingway, Virginia Wolf, etc. I think telling a complicated story with just a few frozen frames is the most exciting challenge in photography.

The third one is (even though it sounds cheesy) life itself - new places, new food, new experiences and especially new people. They won't give you the "how," but will give you the "why" that will make you look for the "how" every day. And some of them will be so awesome, you will just feel you don't know anything yet, and it's the best thing that can happen to you as a creative:)