“Once upon a time, when we were very young, every moment of our day and every item and event within it were novel. With no conceptual framework against which items were to be arranged, we toyed and played with everything. We combined ordinary things in extraordinary arrangements. We stuck things into scandalous places, we shattered things revered by others. And much of that is to the good. But not all. If our hard-won sense of shared propriety has cost us our ability to see the world as if for the first time, if we have given up our ability to play, we will have lost the cutting edge of our creativity. So when it’s safe, and there aren’t any adults around, play.”
~ Peter London
I don’t suppose anyone has been sitting beside the phone waiting to hear if they won a Craft and Vision eBook in the Creativity Contest but if you are, I hope I have good news for you. Before I let you know which images we selected I have to explain a few things. It appeared from the images and their respective titles that the instructions may have been unclear although Ray has assured me several times that they were not. I suspect too the appeal of winning some C&V eBooks was too much for some who simply entered any images in the hopes they’d be selected. This is understandable because I think they are pretty good books too. What I saw in most of the images that were submitted was a geninue effort to breakfree and return to a childhood notion of play, of creating something novel. For me, the numerous images of children represented the reaching back to a time when we ignored the restrictions placed upon us by adults and just played. It didn’t surprise me at all that we turned to photographing children to make the strongest case for what killed our creativity.
What I set out to do at the beginning of this contest was to develop a list of 10 things that we were told as children that stifled our creativity and now I am going to break my own rules because that’s what it’s all about, right? Ray, Mark and I selected images that we thought came closest to the intent of the contest but more than that we chose images that resonated with us. I know that you’d like to know if you’ve won so I won’t go into any explanations today. Perhaps some of you will give me persmission to showcase your images here on my blog and we can talk a little about your ideas and our response to them. So without further ado here are the images the order they were submitted:
> Don’t go barefoot by mateamiche
> Don’t draw on yourself or you’ll get ink poisoning by mikaylalala178
> Stop making faces by naforchuk
> Stay in the lines by Matthew Connors
> Stay in the yard by Matthew Connors
> Don’t play with your food by Matthew Connors
> Don’t forget you’re (in) uniform by cvanstane
> Glasshouse Magic Colour by DarrenS1971
> Conform by Geoff Ridenour
> Pull up your pants by leftcoastmark
> Whatever you do, don’t make a fool of yourself by Erin Wilson
> Don’t forget your bug spray by Dan Hassler
Yes, there are more than 10 images in the list but hey who’s counting when it comes to creativity. If your images are on the list, send me an email using the contact form on my website and I will send the information you will need to get your free eBook.
Thank you to everyone who participated and of course a big thank you to Mark and Ray who helped with the judging.
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Sabrina, I get the sense that you are disappointed with the outcome of the contest. The Flickr group did seem to fall prey to some picture spammers, or at least some rule-confused posters. But, still, thanks to you, the judges, and Craft & Vision for the giveaways.
Congratulations Matthew!
I wasn’t disappointed with the outcome of the contest as I learnt quite a bit from the whole process and have even more things to discuss on the blog–that’s never a bad thing. My lengthy explanation was because I’d like people to understand the choices we made. That is a difficult thing to accomplish given that we are talking about art!
I inferred too much. My overactive imagination
. It was a great idea for an image topic/subject and a lot of fun to consider rules we are taught and it’s result on creativity. Even more so since my children are young and at the age when some of these lessons are relevant.
Nothing wrong with an overactive imagination, Matthew. Were the kids in your images your children?!
Yes, they were mine. I’ve 3. They provide endless photo opportunities and are well attuned to having the camera pointed at them and me coaxing them with directions. For kids, they are really patient with their bumbling Dad as I play with different camera settings and lighting.
By the way, the ability to save the free ebook award for future C&V publications is nice. They are addictive. Now just send me a list of future releases and I can start planning….
Do you live anywhere near me? I’d like to rent your kids for a day.
As for the C&V titles, I can’t say what’s coming up but you know we will have Iceland: The Print and The Process for sure and we will have one later this month.
Excellent response, I really love the photos.
Thanks Jeff. I have a few favourites in the bunch and hopefully I’ll have a chance to talk about them in future posts.
Thanks! I’m a compulsive C&V shopper anyway… I don’t mind some enabling of the habit
Hee, hee…and that’s a habit I am happy to enable, Erin.