To make a long story short: this is a super interesting book, and it comes highly recommended.
If you expect to have a book that talks about photography in terms of which aperture to shoot at or how to frame your images just right, then you will be disappointed. The scope is much broader as the sub-title suggests: The why and the how behind our human need to create.
You may – like me – know Sean Tucker as a photographer and a YouTuber and follow him on both channels. But I did not know that he had been a musician and and waited tables to make ends meet financially. And it reminded me that he had also been a priest (and no, I did not run for the hills…).
On the homepage Sean writes that “This book contains personal stories interwoven with the psychological, philosophical and spiritual practices which help me stay a mentally healthy, inspired and motivated ‘maker of things.'” – that is in essence the content of this book. And it is relevant for anyone being creative of some sort.
The book impressed me in several ways and to illustrate, let me give some examples:
Envy. Envy is not something we often talk about. It is a forbidden feeling almost and one that most try to supress. But Sean instead moves forward and analyses the feeling and how to deal with it constructively. This part of the book I found refreshing and brave, because he uses himself and his own story as the example and not some “holding it in arm’s length and talking about it academically”-way.
Feedback and critics. I find it hard to ask for feedback, or I simply forget to do it. And even more seldom do I actually work with the feedback. Sean early in his life thought about this and apparently decided to use the feedback as an integral part of his way living and working, and that calls for respect. And he also early identified mentors and was early in life very clear about why he wanted mentors and how to make the best of them. Sean also gives several examples of feedback that was harsh or brutal at the time, but he managed to turn it into something constructive and useful every time.
Success. I must admit that to some extent I believe in the american dream. Maybe not in the way a true American would, but that hard work and a bit of talent or luck can take you a long way and almost is a guarantee for success. Sean punctures this belief effectively using van Gogh as example, but also from his life as musician. I am still processing that part of the book and it bites me. I know from my NLP training that we do not see the world as it is, but rather a model of the world and that we take in information that fits our model of the world mainly, and leave the rest be. Seans words about success does not fit my model of the world, and as such it to me is a mental blow. And as unpleasant as mental punches to the kidneys are short term, as beneficial they can be longer term. Sean also talks about the world being broken and this is another part of the book that challenges my belief system, so I’ve been plenty challenged reading the book!
The small stories. Without going too much into details because I think you should enjoy the story yourself, I will give this quote: “This artistic train wreck would win no awards, but it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen”. That little story really moved me.
I could go on. But I won’t, because I think you should read the book if you have any interest in creativity, self development or philosophy. Or how you can grow as an artist.
I bought the book here in Denmark from a local online store. It can also be downloaded in an electronic version. And I believe you can even read a larger sample from the book. So there are no excuses – start here.
Shopping link
Sean Tucker: The meaning in the making
Video link
Related reading
Review: Outdoor Photography monthly magazine
Review: Photography and the Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson
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