Love

My best artistic work always revolves around my loves. The passion for my subject shines through rerentlessly. It glows. It shines.  

I hear it all the time from my photographic students.  “I don’t know what to photograph,  Len.”   Photograph what you love, is always my reply.  

It can be quite a journey figuring out what that is. I discovered my passions through trial and error.  Things you think you will enjoy sometimes fall flat, while others that are unsuspecting jump up and grab your passions.   

At first I thought I just loved nature. But it turned out to be way more complex than that.  Through my work, I slowly I figured out I prefer forests over open spaces. Canyons over cliff tops. I worked out I prefer nature to hug me and wrap its arms around me.  I worked out that my feelings were way more complex than I first assumed.  

My bias towards photography that is about my passions comes from a positive outlook on the world.  Wanting to bring and share beauty with others.  I am sure that making art about what you love is a very small section of the art world.  So that may not be you.   

So, perhaps a better answer would be to explore your art and your creativity around your passions.  

Ask yourself, what really stirs your emotions? What do you really connect with? Follow them with gay abandon and see where they lead you.  You don’t have to know what they are. You don’t need the answer before you start.  Let it come through your work.   

Dipodium roseum, commonly known as rosy hyacinth-orchid or pink hyacinth-orchid. Dad loved these and would show them to me in the bush.  At first I couldn’t spot them, but slowly over time I learnt to see them.  This particular one I found on my birthday this year on a walk on Roseville Creek. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2018