Permission To Suck

Creative Distraction: Buggy Whip Makers Were in the Motivation Business

Thursday, May 13, 2010

If you’re a creativity supplier be very proud of your steady revenue in the face of change. Either you’re a positioning genius in an unstable market or it just may be the quiet before a bigger storm.

Get as Close to the Flame as You Can

Monday, May 10, 2010

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Flame finding is your talent. Imagination is hot, execution is cold. The flame is illusive; if you must obsess about something, make it a flame search. "I think part of the process of this whole thing is to get as close to the flame as you can get without being burned" – Graham Nash

Taking with Creative Director – Adam Cohen

Monday, March 15, 2010

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Meet Adam. He's determined to unite talent - his own. A first-class writer and a first-rate illustrator equals a great cartoonist. A great cartoonist makes an exceptional ad man, screen writer and film director. Listen to his insightful thoughts about creativity.

Two Lessons in One Night

Saturday, January 23, 2010

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I had a short conversation with a good friend last night at a club. A mention of his young son reminded me to relive my childhood. His young pre-teen son is a talented skater seemingly on the “pro track”. Somewhere in the discussion Dad disclosed, “when I asked him if he might someday perform as [...]

Your Creative Beginners Mind

Monday, December 7, 2009

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Allow me to lower the bar. Originality, the origin of which is you, is rooted in self expression. I helped teach a few years of Photography 101 on the college level years ago. Not much stuck with me except for one distinct pattern. Nearly all students where eventually infected with a malady; It was apparent that we educated the originality out of our students. It’s important to bear in mind that these were art students eager to develop their professional skills.

Permission To Suck Manifesto 16, 17, 18 …

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

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This time, an addition of three items to the Permission To Suck Manifesto comes from my own attempts recently to reignite my passion for photography. It's not that I stopped enjoying the work but it's that I had forgotten what it felt like when everything felt new. Suspension of disbelief might be the answer - whatever works - but these three points have been rolling around in my head the past couple months.

The Afghanistan Portfolio of Photographer – David Guttenfelder

Thursday, November 26, 2009

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Photographers learn early to capture contrast. Most serious photographers – pre digital – started seeing frames in black and white so the word “contrast” is etched into our professional consciousness. Yet, contrast is more importantly seen as paradox. In this group of images taken in Afghanistan by Photographer David Guttenfelder, we are confronted with some of the most profound examples.

The Permission to Suck Manifesto

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

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Somewhere in your personal history a decision was made to forgo a “real job”; one your parents would understand. Artist, creative director, writer, musician, photographer, actor, fine artist or pick one – you got attention for a talent or liked doing it so much that there was just no room to commit significant time to a profession less flattering gratifying. You became one of them sensitive types whose ego is vulnerably bonded to their work. True objective distance is pointless but it’s best to have a survival strategy.

Steve McCurry: Arts and Minds

Thursday, October 8, 2009

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McCurry is an adventurer, documentarian and photojournalist with a great soul, a big heart, and a celebrated pair of eyes. Steve is an anthropologist who endures with his subjects.

Ben Wiggins – Beyond the “Cool” of time compression

Thursday, October 1, 2009

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I’ve seen time lapse before, who hasn’t? Maybe it’s a shaky seedling sprouting from the ground or a street scene with jittery people. Yet, there’s an emotion to Ben’s short films that I find unexpected. Not only is the still frame that captures the motion well considered but the motion itself has a power beyond the usual “cool” of time compression.