Frozen Ideas

Great ideas can stem from the smallest questions. Sometimes they work, other times you have to try a couple of times before you succeed. Even growing up in Minnesota, land of 10,000 skating rinks, I never really thought about this as a winter sport option... bravo Germans.

Where do great story ideas come from? How does the photographer get from point A to B, without going crazy?

First of all, I don't think that getting to B can ever occur without going crazy. Especially when working on a great story.

Starting a project can seem like a daunting idea, especially after looking thorough the POYi archives. I always find, like Anne Lamott also says, that ideas have to start small, "Bird by Bird." I think that with photographs, a story needs to start with a question. Unlike writers, we cannot sit in front of the computer recalling memories or scenes and create them with your finger tips. Photographers have to walk out the door, drive their car in the correct direction, and ask a question. "What do I want to know more about?" You have to be curious about the subject, and show your process and your excitement with the subject through the medium of the photograph in order to fascinate a viewer. It may take years for your story to take shape, but you have to have the stamina and intrigue to keep going. When I was younger, my mom bought me a book with what I thought were the answers to everything in the world. My favorite chapters were, 'why do cats purr?' and 'How do fish stay alive in the winter?' I forget the name of the book, and I'm pretty sure it has been lost in one of our moves, but I would love to have that book on my bookshelf, right in between my favorite photo books. It reminds me to question every second of the day, even the tiniest things. One of those itty bitty questions that seemed so trivial at the time, may turn into the corner stone of a truly magnificent story.