I am guilty, I am one of those that loves reading Malcolm Gladwell. Some might call it McScience but he manages to bring together concepts and ideas that other wise might never see the light of day. I personally never would have researched or wondered why most professional hockey players have their birthdays within 3 months of each other. You will have to read the book to find that out.
So this is less a Book review and more a discussion on how this book applies to Photographers and Artists. The main premise behind the book is that the reasons we usually attribute to a person’s success are usually pretty far off. We tend to believe that people who are incredible successes are so because they are more intelligent or more talented than us , that just doesn’t bear out under scrutiny. It usually has more to do with environment, access, and hard work.
We have this myth that great artists are just born that way, they just have something different from us, we could never hope to aspire to their level of talent and genius. When we call some one a genius we think of it as a compliment, it is, but we don’t seem to see or value the countless hours that any artist puts in to become a success .
I saw this on a back of a t -shirt while standing in the Burger King line at LAX “Hard work will always beat talent, when talent refuses to work hard” . Gladwell posits that it takes 10,000 hours to become good at something. That is a lot of work to become a great painter, photographer, or a violinist. But before you even pick up that violin to practice those 10,000 hours, you need a violin, and a place to play. Without the support of your environment, without the access to your equipment, without the time to work, there is no success.
The successful among us were lucky enough to be in the right environments, with the right access so that their hard work could pay off. Talent had something to do with it, but not as much as you may think.
So how can we use this information to become better photographers? If you are just starting out, realize it is going to take you 3-5 years to become a good photographer, and that is if you are working at it all the time. Going to a photo school is a great way to get those 10,000 hours in the shortest time possible. If that is not an option for you, shoot as much as you can or get a job as a photo assistant.
Try to create an environment that is conducive to you being a photographer. You will have to decide what that is. Maybe you need to join an association or group so you can hang out with other photographers and get ideas, maybe it means finding a quiet place to edit your photos and work on photoshop. Figure it out.
Access, this is an easy one, you need a camera, any camera, and just shoot with it. Don’t get seduced by the latest and greatest, we all love gadgets and having nice equipment. But always having to have the latest gear is just hidden procrastination (thats another entry). Get new gear when you can afford to, Photographers have been making great images with crappy cameras for ages. Its a right of passage.
Oh and since I am giving out advice you didn’t ask for in the first place. Read more books. You will find more ideas for images from books than almost anywhere else. And some books, like Gladwell’s “Outliers” can give you some hope that your hard work more than your talent is what will pay off.
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