Creativity: Fuel for Living

Imagination is the widescreen of life, full color, full throttle. It’s not meant to be a dimly flickering bulb in the basement. Imagination offers a path, not only of achievement, but excitement, a quickening of the pulse. Even when the creative journey leads to failure, as it occasionally must. Like a muscle, imagination must be exercised, toned and sharpened over the course of years on this earth. Left alone, unused, it will grow flaccid and weak, and ultimately desert one’s life. 

It is also not immediate. Some imaginings must marinate. We’ve all heard those Hollywood stories about how a stunning piece of work now on screen meandered in the back lots through years of disappointment, heartbreak and economic ruination only to finally spring to life like a garden, unkempt and disheveled over time, but now blooming in fullness. Imagination can be a lightning bolt, but more often it is a path along which storms will occur, and seemingly interminable valleys. But that glimmer, the “what if” that always attends the creative life force, is the fuel that pushes us to get out of bed in the morning. Keep moving. 

It is part of what I truly, deeply love about being a photographer (which could translate into being a writer, a painter, a sculptor, a dancer, a blogger, a podcaster, a teacher). You can make a dream, a phantasm blowing down the hallways of your brain, into something real and defined. That something will move and influence others, just by them taking a simple look. And that simple look arrests the eyes, and turns into a longer, ruminative look, which leads to emotional connection and understanding. A mutuality, born of communicated creativity. Curiosity. Problem solving. Making the synapses of your brain fire to unravel a creative challenge.

Creative thinking is audacious and what sets you apart from others. The simple fact that you stop and look at the light that’s gracing the coffee shop window where you go for your morning pick-me-up means you view the world at an angle. Your entire persona can thrive on this difference, and these instincts. The need to express creatively feeds your curiosity about the world. And, it doesn’t have to be the far-flung world. There are people and places in your daily life that you could approach with a camera.

There are scenes in your hometown worth painting. There is the longtime owner of the local stationery store that is worth interviewing and writing about. 

One expression leads to another and another. Strength in numbers. One local interview might seem lonesome and without power. Five or ten becomes a bit of a journal. The more dogged and tenacious you are in the pursuit of what you find interesting means in fact, you are interesting and thus worth listening to. A photograph from a scenic spot is just that. A photograph. But go back to that spot, and frame it exactly, at different times of day, in different weather and light, it becomes a project worth pursuing. And thus self-sustaining. There are interesting, vibrant threads to life that are at your fingertips, always. 

The ongoing nurturing of creativity requires patience and steadiness of effort. It’s work! It’s far easier to do nothing. Sit on the sidelines. Instead of waiting interminably in the street for the right graphical mix of the passing shadows of pedestrians, the coffee shop across the way looks inviting. A cappuccino and a chocolate croissant? No! Stay the course! The rewards are great. 

It can take a lifetime to find your voice, but never stop seeking it. It’s that unique voice, once found, that enriches the arc of life, no matter how long or short that arc is.

Joe McNally

Photographer, Director

Joe McNally has photographed five cover stories for the National Geographic and seven covers of LIFE magazine. He has covered four Olympics, twice climbed the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and climbed the Empire State Building four times. Joe has the ability to photograph simple assignments with intimacy and grace, and master movie-scale productions with large crews, tremendous pressure and countless moving parts.