When I was in photography school, our program filled our days with many classes that taught different aspects of photography for a full year.

We had a course that taught the technical aspects of our DSLR cameras and our editing software. We had another course that taught film photography, including how to develop and print photos in the dark room. We had another course that taught studio work, how to use lights and set up backdrops.

The Photography Class That Changed How I Saw

But one of the most interesting courses we had was one that sounded a bit more ambiguous.

It was called Creative Imaging.

One of the very first exercises they gave us to do was to bring an empty sketch book with blank, white pages. No lines, no bullet points, nothing on the paper. On the first day of class, our Creative Imaging teacher told us to open our sketch books and start writing what she called “string of consciousness”. The objective was to write everything and anything that came to mind, and not ever stop writing. There were no rules, even punctuation rules were not necessary.

Everything our minds thought in that moment, we had to write it down on the page. She would get us to do this for the first few minutes of each class, before we even pulled out our cameras or studied photographs.

At first I wasn’t sure what the purpose was, but eventually I understood. She wanted us to free our creative minds, to practice thinking, feeling and exploring ideas well before we ever applied any technical processes to our photography.

She taught us how to take photos that connected to stories, ideas, emotions or feelings. We were learning how to put life into our photography.

Creativity Is a Skill We Can Practice

Long after this Creative Imaging course, I continued to apply what we learned into my photography practice. It may have been one of the most important classes of the program.

Training our minds to be more creative, to learn to make connections to ideas, emotions and stories in all our photography is invaluable. But it doesn’t just happen over night.

We have to practice developing our creativity if we are to grow in our photography skills.

Try Photographing “Non-Objects”

here are many creative practices we can adopt, but I’ll share one in particular that has benefitted my work over the years.
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It’s the practice of taking photos of non-objects.

By this, I mean avoiding trying to take photos of obvious subject matter, like a car, or a sunset, or a smiling person. Once in a while, it’s good to train our brains to pursue non-literal subject matter, “non-objects”.

Instead of looking for obvious things, look for textures, light spots, repeating patterns, variations in colour, empty space that creates a shape, etc.

As we take photos of things that take a bit more time to interpret its meaning and to register it in our minds, it exercises our creative muscle. It trains us to create photos with more meaning and purpose – which is exactly what makes a photo so compelling.

Look Beyond the Obvious

So this week, while you’re out taking photos, think about how you can take photos of non-objects. Look for interesting visuals that are beyond the objects that are plainly in front of you. See where it takes you and how it impacts your creative process.

Want to see photo examples of non-objects?

Check out my collection on Instagram here:

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Hi I'm Gabrielle. I run a full time photography business in Winnipeg, specializing in portrait and commercial photography. This newsletter started with my passion for helping everyday people realize their full photography potential. With a bit of technical and creative help, you too can take better photos with the phone camera you already have.

Find more of my resources here:

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Gabrielle Touchette Photography

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