Out of all the talents, the Creatives are the most misunderstood.

Highly individualistic by nature, the Creatives take pride in all of their works. While there may be some Creatives who appreciate the contributions of others, most of them do not. They take great delight in creating something out of their own efforts and they often create something for aesthetical value and not for practical usage.

The last point is what makes the Creatives unsuitable in most corporate workplaces, where practicality and profits often take precedence over aesthetical beauty. Conflicts and disagreement often result between management and the Creatives since there’s apparently a conflict of interest between the two: the management wants to make a profit with a practical product while the Creatives often opt for aesthetics.

Another factor that makes the Creative averse to working in the corporate workplace is the fact that most of them hate the rules and bureaucratic atmosphere that exist in most work places. The Creatives often wants independence and flexibility to do what they want to do, which means that they want some quiet time to think things through. And they have a strong dislike for deadlines. Unfortunately, deadlines are prevalent in most work places and the numerous meetings often frustrate the Creatives. This may explain why the Creatives are often found in certain professions, which includes fashion design, advertising and any form of performing arts (dance, musicals etc) where freedom and flexibility is often given and even encouraged.

It’s interesting to note that there exists a group of Creatives who are able to blend their creative talents with the practical demands of companies. This gives them an edge when it comes to certain industries such as the design industry, the IT industry etc. An ability to use their creative talents to increase the profitability of a company may be one of the few ways for Creatives to assimilate into the company. Nevertheless, most Creatives will never allow their creative talents to be compromised by bureaucratic demands.  

To most Creatives, being creative is actually a gift. This is because not everyone is one. They feel that they are special in this world and they want to make use of this talent to create something for the good of mankind.  Most of them do not pursue materialistic wants and they are satisfied that the works that they have created have made this world a more beautiful place.

Dear class, 

During one of our class discussions, some of you have brought up the concept of “Show, do not tell” when it comes to the reports by the media. I figure most of us will interpret this as a neutral, factual reporting of the media and not making any aspects of the report subjective.

Along the same vein, the concept of “Show, do not tell” can also be applied in the field of photography. Photographs often have a strong presence even in the absence of captions. They have the ability to evoke emotions while allowing every one of us to interpret the pictures independently of one another. This might be a bit constraining when it comes to the field of photojournalism (since the pictures are taken primarily to describe an event or a happening), but there’s still space left open for interpretation in this aspect as well. Once again – as mentioned in my previous post – composition is important since this is the most crucial factor when it comes to enabling the viewers to interpret the message of the photograph.

In a world where we are constantly being bombarded by noise, photography grants us that silence that enables us to have peace of mind. However, some advertisers are beginning to use photography as a form of visual attraction to engage our attention (when often we do not wish to). What begins as a form of art has now been turned into a device for consumerism, which is a very regretful development.

Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that the concept of “Show, do not tell” applies well when it comes to photography. If not, advertisers will not maximise the usage of such concept in recent years. Indeed, they are beginning to realise that a picture indeed speaks a thousand words.      

Photographs are most impactful when left alone. It is unbelievable how much we like to add information to photographs, Editors place captions below them, photojournalists adds an article alongside them and image editors edit them often to enhance the photo’s visual appeal.  It’s understandable that all of this is done to align the photographs to the reports that the media wish to make. However, at the same time, the impact of the photo is reduced since adding information in such ways reduces the number of possibilities of interpretations open to the viewers.

Hence, “Show, do not tell” should be the motto of every photographer.

Such is the essence of photography.