#DearDiary - Use What's Around You

// shot & styled by me, Nicole Vaunt 

I'll be honest, I had never heard of Jeff Goldblum until I stumbled across a recent GQ interview. I know I know, I'm a luddite, but I read articles constantly and a link with bright photos of a silly looking guy in great glasses is enough to draw my attention to the accompanying words. Then he said something that has changed my life: "use what exists." What a simple concept, and like most simple things, how utterly fucking profound. 

Similarly significant was a question posed by Chris Vongsawat, a photographer I know and have worked with, whose philosophical posts about the changing nature of creativity are ones I'll stop my feed for. "How do your multiple passions weave together?" he asked. As someone who has always felt pulled in multiple artistic directions, how do they weave together indeed. 

I've been chewing on these endlessly, sloshing the two gems around in my brain until my own variations emerged, polished and ready. 

Use What's Around You.

and

Merge Your Passions. 

I'm drawn to tools that encourage self awareness. Both of these mantras require clear thinking about who you are, what you have, and especially what you want. 

I want to photograph jewelry and accessories professionally. I want to have a reliable vision & skill that I've developed while also being actively engaged in modeling, so that even if the medium that I create with changes I can continue to work for many years to come. 

So we divide the page into two columns. What do I lack and what do I have? The quality of work I want to be creating usually requires a a full team of collaborators, from the client providing the product to the hair, makeup and styling folks outside the frame. At the moment I don't have any of those. I do have sewing skills, second-hand stores, access to and knowledge of professional lighting & retouching, and myself. So let's brainstorm & throw them together and see what results (like the photos above!).

This isn't just for those in the arts, though. In the gig-driven economy that we are currently experiencing it pays to think about yourself in the same way. Not that I lay claim to all the answers, but if you have insomnia and access to a car? Maybe drive for Lyft. Want to learn something you can't afford a class on, but have an internet connection? Maybe hop on YouTube or Lynda.com. We have to think about working in a different, more circuitous way to survive. If we have to have multiple jobs, maybe at least we can make them work together.