EXPERIENCE + INNOVATION
“Creative work isn’t all innovation all the time. Experience gives an archive to draw from.”
Rick Rubin
The pursuit of something original often feels like a battle between what’s been done and what’s just out of reach. Sometimes, it feels like creativity demands risk. A leap into something unknown.
That’s where innovation comes in. It asks you to risk it all, to strip down your assumptions and confront the possibility of failure. Once you’ve confronted that fear of failure, you’re ready to create with freedom.
Innovation also asks us to see the world with fresh eyes, to break habits and trust intuition, even when there isn’t a clear roadmap. It’s driven by curiosity as much as courage—a relentless curiosity that won’t rest until something new has been uncovered.
And there’s a beauty in that. Innovation isn’t just about creating what’s never been seen; it’s about reaching deeply into what’s familiar and finding life in places you might have overlooked. In jazz, for instance, innovation isn’t about discarding tradition but bending it, blending familiar notes in unpredictable ways. The goal isn’t simply to do something new; it’s to make something alive, to communicate something only that particular musician could express. And in photography, innovation is about offering a new perspective, a fresh take on reality, and perhaps a glimpse of a truth otherwise unseen.
Now experience doesn’t have the glamour of fresh ideas, but over time you gather moments—successes and failures alike—and they become a toolkit. Experience guides the hand that’s learned from bruises, from endless attempts, and from facing hard truths. It’s the voice that says, “Slow down, think about this one more time.”. It teaches you how to get back up and build on what’s left after the fall.
Photography sits right at this intersection. It’s both an act of precision and imagination, demanding that you balance the thrill of the new with the reliability of what you know. An experienced photographer knows how to turn an image into a memory, a feeling, something that resonates. But you don’t reach that place without both innovation and experience working together. You have to go out on a limb, yes, but you also have to know how to capture what you find there.
So, take the leap. Know that experience will be there to back you up, and let yourself reach for something new. Creativity might ask you to walk on the edge, but that’s where the magic happens.
