The Sky. Boulder, Colorado, 2014
Arno Rafael Minkkinen, an accomplished Finnish photographer currently teaching at the University of Massachusetts, has come up with a wonderful metaphor. It is aimed very pointedly at those of us who are groping for our personal niche, a well-defined style, a unique vision.
The metaphor is the Helsinki Bus Station and the many separate bus lines that you could take, then mix and match, as you move along on your solo journey.
I recommend you read his complete version, The Helsinki Bus Station Theory, Finding Your Own Vision in Photography, but here is a quick summary (as I understand it):
Stay on the bus! Don’t switch buses because you think another one will get you there more directly or faster!
The idea is that, with your art, you may be tempted to radically alter your course as you go: Hmmm, I tried HDR cityscapes, now I think I’ll try infrared street photography…no, wait, maybe I’ll try a series on clowns…or, how about a portfolio of cats juggling, or maybe…
And so on. You might think you need to look for some unexplored area in photography to make your splash at the gallery, so you go on trying different things (traveling different bus lines).
Here’s the problem: If you keep switching bus lines, you’ll never reach your destination! At the very least, you will arrive very, very late. Stick to what you really believe in, not what you think might be the next big rage in photography, or what you think others might like. Stick to the bus that is comfortable for you.
If you do stay on the same bus–that is, stay true to YOU and what fulfills YOU in your art–with time, you will continue to refine your work and it will eventually become distinctive. It will be distinctive because you will, eventually, imbue your work with something truly unique: your inner, very special, individuality. It might take time for this to completely reveal itself, but it will happen.
That’s the lesson from Minkinnen’s Metaphor, as I see it.
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