Brenton Parry

Not quite there...

Added 2021-05-06 09:56:15 +0000 UTC

It's my firm belief that creative people should never stop testing themselves. Most artists have a recognisable style and some photographers definitely have a signature look or even location but doing the same thing all the time makes me feel stagnant.

A few years ago I had the idea for the main image on this post of Timmy launching a paper plane into the sky to join flocks of other planes flying past. It's a shot that I love and am very proud of. So of course when the first attempt went well I thought I'd try and roll the origami/paper whimsical theme across a few shoots.

The second shoot was my first shoot with Laria and while not as successful as the first shoot, still not a disaster. From there I tried a couple more shoots with the origami theme but they just didn't work. It felt forced and not very well executed.

There are a plethora of young digital artists/photographers out there now using photography to help with their mental health and exploring that through the medium. One of the things that seems to be a reoccurring theme and possibly now a fad, is a person surrounded by a lot of something retouched into the image. The sky might be full of lightbulbs or sheets of paper, or a thousand birds circling the subject and while they are beautiful, it feels like a gimmick now.

So I have abandoned the origami theme for a while until inspiration strikes or I just get caught up in being stubborn and giving it a try again. Until then, Timmy can launch his paper plane as my beacon of hope.