The need for a body of work

As a creative, there’s always trends that catch our eye. If we don’t respond to this trend, we might fail to evolve our craft.

The caveat is that when we become too responsive to these trends, we’re always swaying left and right, rather than being grounded by the one or two things you want to double down.

As a creative, this can become quite intrusive especially when it means you lack a north star to stay true to. You lose meaning to your work and value as a creative. You become (extra) responsive to criticism and what others are doing. Focus becomes distraction; and meaning becomes redundancy.

This is why I strongly believe having a body of work is imperative for all creatives, regardless of domains.

For musicians, they have albums.

For podcasts, they have a show.

For photographers, they have a genre of stills.

For directors, they have trilogies.

If we do not have a body of work, we become distracted to what others are doing and when we find ourselves not up the standards, we become subject to imposter syndrome.

Being committed to this that keeps us grounded. Something to put all out eggs in one basket. Something to give meaning to our work. Something to see our efforts compound.

It’s long-term games that gives us meaning and prupose to our creative works. Not meaningless trends that provide us short-term vanity metrics.

Don’t get me wrong. The games we choose to play, for example growing as a content creator, comes with their unique set of rules. Failure to abide these rules may result in falling behind the crowd.

But this is where conviction comes in. It’s conviction in what we stand for through our art that allows us to forego instant gratification and fleeting trends.

Being a creative means leaning into the power of exploration and learning how to learn. But the caveat is that these learnings should, in my opinion, be put in one basket. In one body of work. Rather than have all these skills and observed or applied learnings scattered, having a body of work provides us with a more holistic canvas to showcase to deepen our passions and interests.

For me, my body of work is coastal photography. Sure I love capturing different moments in travel, landscape, sports and portraiture but above all, nothing will ever beat my love for shooting the coast. The mighty waves, aerials of beaches, hopefully soon underwater shots and everything in between.

It doesn’t mean I will only shoot coastal, but I think it’s the one medium as a creative I want to be bullish at and work hard at mastering the craft. Personally speaking, the beauty of the coast is unmatched. No two waves are the same, and no two waves can ever be captured the same way. You can capture the oceanic might with a fast shutter or you can highlight the smooth textures with a slow shutter. With a drone, you can capture a classic aerial and if you’re lucky you can even catch majestic sea creatures in the right season.

There’s so much to learn for my coastal journey and the best is yet to come for my body of work.

PS. While you’re here, I’m pleased to announce that I have finally mustered up the courage to build in public and have began launching my side project StayWavy. StayWavy is a community that fosters the devotion and love that creatives alike have for the Australian coast. Providing a platform for creatives to support one another and share their appreciation, StayWavy aims to encourage each individual to tell their own unique story of the coast.