Creative mindfulness in freelensing | Cambridge photographer and filmmaker
Earlier this year I joined with four other female artists and photographers in a creative freelensing project, where we drew inspiration from a piece of another artists’ work, ranging from quotes to poems to artwork or music, to make a freelensed photo or video with our very own interpretation of that inspiration.
We called this our ‘15secondsofsuccalm’ project, where we intended to succumb to a mindful calmness while crafting our photos and videos using the art of freelensing.
I wrote in this article how I found freelensing allowed me to let go and slow down in my creative steps to making photos with intentional blur. It is not to be confused with slowing down creativity, which is far from what freelensing is as it differs from conventional and technical forms of making photos. Instead, it allows the photographer to affect the lens to draw focus and attention to the story in the photograph.
Having been involved in a few freelensing projects in the past: Freelensing 31, Free 52 project, and Travelling Lens Project. I jumped at the chance to be in this new 15secondsofsuccalm project with this amazing group of photographers from Malaysia (Lisha Zulkepli), France (Amelie Pelletier), Germany (Katja Riga), and Russia (Cindy Knight).
I also loved the idea of looking and studying other forms of art to inspire and create still and moving images that are beyond my usual style or taste. Creativity is very much born out of taking inspiration from everyday things/ objects/ surroundings or others that we could use to reflect in our own way; turning a vision of what we see and feel to make something uniquely ours in our art. We could also blend different camera techniques in our freelensed photos and videos too, such as multiple-exposure and filmmaking.
I loved carving out the time for this project and digging deep into my creativity. It was especially important given how rough this year has been, not just in affecting my business, but also impacting generally on my photography too.
We shared our photos and videos each month on Instagram (hashtag #15secondsofsuccalm), but I compiled below the full collection of the 5 photos and 5 still images of the videos so you can see here what I created so far. You can follow our 15secondsofsuccalm project when we will start the project again in 2021.
‘Girl behind the bottle’ photograph by Irving Penn. Inspiration for photo.
2. ‘Le Sacre du Printemps’ (The Rites of Spring) by Pina Bausch. Inspiration for video.
3. Poem by Tyler Knot Gregson. Inspiration for photo.
"Find my hand
in the darkness
and if we
cannot find the light,
we
will always
make our
own."
This photo won an Honourable Mention award in the 2020 Voice Photo Contest and Collection from ClickinMoms.
4. Poem by Bec Ellis. Inspiration for video (in bold).
"How do you actually walk, find your
way through these
moments,
like some cruel maze
full of soft and hard edges
where things feel both
abrupt
and hazy with unknowns
and you just want to remember
what it felt like
when your heart
wasn't so obviously
present
in your chest?"
5. A Thousands Versions Of You poem by Nikita Gill. Inspiration for photo.
" You have shed
a thousands skins
to become the person
you are today.
And if you ever feel
overwhelmed
by the many people you once were,
remember,
your bones have grown,
but what makes them
has never changed."
6. Poem by Jalalladin al Rumi. Inspiration for video (in bold).
"I choose to love you in silence
For in silence I found no rejection
I choose to love you in loneliness
For in loneliness on one owns you but me
I choose to adore you from a distance
For distance will shield me from pain
I choose to kiss you in the wind
For the wind is gentler than my lips
I choose to hold you in my dreams
For in my dreams, you have no end."
