DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTIST | Personal Vision

Personal vision is the manifestation of a recognizable, intentional approach to image-making with a point of view that can be characterized by continuity in aesthetic, content, theme, and/or technical style.

Personal vision is not something that can be rushed or forced. You always have it—IT’S YOUR VOICE—but it takes time, experimentation, and trial and error for vision to evolve and crystallize. Be wary of letting external elements push you into a particular style and then calling it vision. Your personal style is much broader and changeable. Style is how you express your vision through a combination of methodology, technique, and technology.

Many artists have been trapped by the first successful image or body of work they make. They enter a cycle of repetition, making and remaking that same, successful image, time and time again in the name of personal vision. But this repetitive cycle promises little growth because it lacks true vision. Vision is about identity and expression, not redundancy. It’s deeply personal, and only you can develop the truest and most consistent form of that vision.

Artists with a powerful personal vision have achieved it because they put in the time to explore how they want to express themselves. This is the journey of photography, and it’s as much about self-discovery as it is about making pictures. Over time as you come to know yourself better, your own voice will ring more truly in the images you create.

PERSONAL VISION

Whether I’m photographing for myself or for a client, whether my subject is a model, animal, or object, there is a consistency across my work—like a fingerprint. Though the approaches may vary in style, the images maintain the same vision.