Inspiration - Where Do You Get Yours?
Here's what really gets me: I used to be funny. Then with age and responsibility, humour gets slowly drummed out of us in work and adult life. The scary part, is what else disappears with humour: wonder, curiosity, and play. They're all linked to the fun of our youth, aren't they?
We need that curiosity back more than ever. Too many jobs have become small, replaceable cogs in gargantuan machines. Without curiosity, how can we continue to grow? If you lose that wonder and desire to develop mentally, those corporations will be more than happy to keep you in your little box, making them money, knowing you'll be there tomorrow.
So where do you find real inspiration when social media feeds you nothing but impossible perfection?
The Problem with Perfect
Ah, social media. If ever there was a double-edged sword in the hands of every person with an iPhone, this is it. Social media can be a sweet release from writer's block or photographic constipation, but it's equally capable of trapping us for hours as we unwittingly doom-scroll our lives away. And let's not forget those attacks of self-doubt when we assume the perfect images and videos we're constantly seeing are what we should be striving for. Spoiler alert: it's an impossible aspiration.
A real, fully lived life is better than social media.
The Answer Lives in Stories
In 2023, I posted a YouTube video about books being more important than Instagram for photographers. I still stand by that claim, and indeed, reading is incredibly valuable for anyone wanting release from the tribulations of life in general. I still read a few chapters each night before switching the bedside lamp off.
I absolutely love a murder mystery (especially if it's set decades or centuries ago), thrillers, and fantasy. Some of my favourite authors are Edward Marston, Arthur Conan Doyle, Caimh McDonnell, Terry Pratchett, and of course Lee Child with his Jack Reacher series. It's very rare I'll read anything photographic or architectural related to unwind.
But one genre I do throw into the mix is the autobiography.
You know those perfect images and videos on social media? Well, read pretty much any autobiography and you'll discover first-hand exactly how unrealistic the perfect life actually is. I've read loads: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Debbie Harry, Bear Grylls, my all-time hero Billy Connolly, and more. Read any of these and you'll soon discover that their 'celebrity' or glamorous lives aren't as magical as social media would have you believe. So don't fall for it.
But what you will gain from reading books outside your field is proper inspiration.
Making It Work
I'd love to have been the next Bear Grylls or Steve Backshall, but Mother Nature had other ideas when she put me together. That doesn't mean I haven't absorbed nuggets of information and tactics I can use in my own life and work. Bear's methodical approach to surviving hostile environments? That's exactly how I now tackle tricky architectural shoots. Impossible lighting, restricted access—I break it down into manageable chunks rather than panicking about the whole mess.
Billy Connolly's ability to find extraordinary stories in the most ordinary moments completely changed how I look at buildings. That 'boring' office block might house fascinating human dramas. That derelict warehouse could tell stories of industrial heritage worth capturing.
Read how comedy can be woven into storytelling (Caimh McDonnell is brilliant at this), or read any of Billy Connolly’s books, and you'll realise what absolute twaddle we've been fed about keeping work serious, humourless and devoid of fun.
Live Inspiration
And so I fuel my inspiration with stories of derring do, factual and fictional. I may not physically be able to hike the Himalayas or row the Atlantic, but I can digest the way those stories made me feel. I can analyse what ingredients from these tales kept me engaged and incorporate those methods into my own architectural photography career and storytelling.
If you're daring enough, go to a talk by someone whose work you admire.
Just this past week I've been to three. First was Levison Wood leading a panel at the Royal Geographical Society—incredible adventurers and environmental advocates who left me buzzing with fresh concepts. Then Simon Reeve with his Ends of the Earth show, talking about the trials of reporting from inhospitable places, but leaving the audience with hope and burning desire to make our own discoveries. Finally, Rob Pope—the British ultra athlete who actually ran across America, five times, like Forrest Gump. The first person to do it for real, 15,600 miles over eighteen months. If you're not inspired after hearing Rob's story, you might actually be dead inside.
Each of them approached challenges with childlike curiosity married to adult determination. They asked "what if?” and "why not?” instead of accepting limitations.
Your Turn to Wonder
So how can you incorporate wonder, curiosity, and adventure into your work? Start consuming stories outside your expertise. Let a thriller writer teach you about building tension. Let an explorer show you preparation for uncertainty. Let a comedian demonstrate finding extraordinary moments in everyday situations.
The perfect Instagram feed will never inspire you like an honest human story can. Real lives, with failures, recoveries, and genuine triumphs, offer blueprints for authentic creativity.
Stop scrolling. Start reading. Start wondering again.
But how can I, an architectural photographer, incorporate wonder, curiosity and adventure into my work? I have a project brewing that incorporates both my worlds of architectural photography and travel. I think it will be interesting and fun to anybody, not just lovers of architecture. At the very least there could be mild peril and maybe the risk of losing a body part. Let's be honest, I can ill afford to lose any more body parts, but you're curious now, aren't you?
