The other day, something amazing happened. I broke my, what seems like, year long creative block. I’ve been creating and have created some images that I know will last in my portfolio, but I’ve felt a bit repetitive and have wanted to break out of it, but nothing “new” and fresh came to my mind…until the other day. I wanted very badly to create in a new way. I woke up thinking about a photo idea I had for a while, and so I started looking for locations. First where I live, then in my whole state, and then in my whole country. I just wasn’t having any luck. I needed a space with three blank walls and no windows that I could shoot in, but was coming up empty handed.

The image isn’t perfect, but I wanted to share it anyway because it is a symbol of what is possible. I’m going to continue shooting in boxes this week and really hope to create a small series of images by the week’s end. All in a box. All in my little office. All filled with inspiration.

Have you ever created with something unusual? Or used something in a way it isn’t necessarily intended? If you have, share the resulting image or story with me! If you have ideas of what could be used, share that, too! And if you create something this week with this theme, leave the image in the comments. Can’t wait!

This is an idea I am in love with. Imagine how differently we would all see each other if we looked at strangers and saw bodies filled with potential. We all carry a story inside of us, a veritable rose garden of beautiful ideas that, if shared, would brighten the world.

Imagination, for so many of us, is our life blood. It is what carries us through the world, gives us strength and courage to be different, and reaffirms our choices when we are in doubt. It is what defines us, it is what makes us whole, and it is what we so badly want to share with others.

Yesterday I was thinking about these ideas, abstract as they may be, and wanted to make them more concrete. I wanted to represent them in an image. My first thought was of imagination as blood, since it feels so necessary for survival, and what the scene would look like should someone’s imagination leak out of them. But then I realized that imagination does not simply “leak”, it explodes. I had a vision of red cloth folding around my face and bursting up the wall. Then I thought about roses, and the symbolism of something in bloom, and how much a garden must be tended to in order to thrive, much like our imaginations. The combination struck a chord in me, and I went out to create.

This is my challenge to you: 

Create an image with a blank wall and a piece of fabric.

I want to see your imagination explode, theoretically. Let’s show the world what can be done with the most limited of resources and a lot of heart. 

“The Rose Garden” is a self-portrait taken February 2015 in my bedroom.

What was most interesting about this writeup was the drastic similarity between the film I made in 2008 and the images I create now. The headline reads: “Shaden Creates Three Worlds…” while my quote inside reads, “We wanted to blur the lines between fantasy and reality.”

I worked on that film for one full year of my life. I put my heart and soul into it. And you know what? It really wasn’t very good. I had little concept of how to create characters and how to write a script. But at the end of the day, good or bad, it was so unbelievably me.

We can get so caught up in our craft that we forget to look at the bigger picture. For an artist who has a recognizable mark, it shouldn’t matter if they are working within their comfort zone, medium, or space. It is likely that an artist with a strong voice will be able to create their art in different genres. It might not be immediately similar, but it will have the same life, the same soul.

I can’t claim to be one of those artists; I haven’t tried hard enough to test myself. But what I am reminded of today is the amazing talent we all possess to find the voice inside that wants to be let out. When I was in my early teens I used to write morbid stories of blood and supernatural happenings…think of a Radiohead song turned into a short story. When I was in high school I took a filmmaking class on a bet, and fell in love with visual storytelling. The first film I created was about a girl hanging herself in a basement. The next one was about a girl who went crazy, broke out of an insane asylum, and drowned herself in a pool.

No one can say my heart wasn’t in it.

I know what I want to say. I know that my artistic voice makes people uncomfortable. It always has, ever since I can remember. From teachers telling me to cheer things up to my family wondering why I concentrated on death so much. But along the way there have been certain markers that have given me the confidence to keep going. A certain teacher telling me I wrote well. My short film of that girl drowning herself winning a local film festival. This article of my college film in Kodak magazine. And in photography…it is you. It is community. It is having a space to share what I love and being able to do so with people who do not judge me for it, but support me.

Milestones come in many ways. Sometimes they are concrete, and we can point to a product and date. But sometimes, and I believe them to be the most important times, are when they are substantial yet intangible; when you look around and have nothing to hold or write down on your resume, but instead have a full heart and a community of people who spread the love.

Thank you for being my milestone in photography, and for giving me the confidence to keep creating, expanding, and sharing.

How often are we plagued with the repetitive thought that we cannot create unless we have something more to create with. A better camera, a new tripod, that awesome speed-light, or just a bigger budget entirely? There are amazing photographers out there who are able to spend a lot of cash for every photo they create, and that is a really wonderful thing to have at your disposal. I am not one of those artists, and to be honest, I get a lot of pleasure from that fact.

One of the things that inspires me more than anything is creating from nothing. I love to give myself a strict budget and see what I can do within those confines. Case in point, this picture was less than $10 total (In case you were wondering how much yarn you’ll need to cover a tree and a human for a pretty creepy photo shoot). Sometimes I challenge myself to shoot inside my house (I’ll be sharing that picture later this week!) or to use a household object as a prop. Self-portraiture is a perfect example of how you can shoot on the cheap, assuming you don’t feel the need to pay yourself and exorbitant amount for modeling. >..<

I still have moments where I feel that my work could be better (re: more personally fulfilling) if I had a grand location or prop or dress, but those instances are few and far between. And when I do have that craving, I get a bunch of photographers together to pay for the scene so we can all benefit and all afford it…because what better way is there to spend your time as a creative than geeking out with other creatives about that AMAZING ABANDONED CHURCH or that one of a kind carousel horse, or or or… you get the picture.

Never let your budget or access to locations and props hold you back. There is always something to be done with your unique imagination and the world you have before your eyes. There is always magic to be created.

Share with me your images created on a budget. Have you used really inexpensive props to create an image, or perhaps an unlikely location? Let’s inspire each other with the creative thinking that a tiny budget requires. Our images are our imaginations, and with that, anything is possible.

For these images I was smitten not only with the inspiration of creating something from nothing, but also by the concept behind it. Life giving life, or perhaps life taking life…whichever way you choose to see it. Red is such a powerful color because it can symbolize power, life, death, blood, etc. It is truly one of those emotional symbols in an image that makes me feel something instantly. A girl giving a tree her life-blood, or both of them sharing. Life giving life. Life taking life. Life-blood.