Creativity, at least my creativity, is a mental state and akin to a deep state of meditation. It’s got nothing to do with mythology, religion or anything esoteric and all to do with being mindful of my surroundings and entering a state of absolute concentration. When in this state, everything around me that is outside my concentration just doesn’t exist and everything inside my concentration gets a close examination that often leads to images that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been in that meditative state. Photography is my form of creativity, is imperative to my relationship with my surroundings and is also one of the keys to my wellbeing. It’s my place of happiness, relaxation and mindfulness.
Autor-Archive: Arno Wirtz
It’s been a very long time since I placed anything new on this website. There’s a couple of reasons for that and I decided to state them here and kick-start a mental reset that will hopefully lead into a new phase of creativity.
The first reason has to do with life, literally. My personal life has been very busy for quite a few months now. So much so, that I lost my inclination to pick up the camera and go out to photograph. As the months went by I got what is known as ‚writers block‘. Perhaps it should be called ‚creative block‘ as it affects many creative people at some stage in their lives. Photography just stopped happening for me and I even began to ask myself what it was that I enjoyed about it. Even though I could explain to myself what I so loved about photography, I wasn’t really feeling it anymore. I need to mention that it is the third time in my 38 years of photography that I encountered ‚creative block‘ and I kind of knew that it isn’t the end but can trigger the beginning of a new and exciting phase of creativity. With that I decided to wait for the right time when things would take a turn for creativity to return. This time has come now. I can tell because I no longer feel disassociated and disengaged from photography but have started to feel excited about the prospect of starting a new project. I feel curiuos again.
The second reason I’ve been quiet for so long has to do with language and my slightly strained relationship with the German language. I was born in Germany and lived here until I was 22 years old. Then I spent 25 years in New Zealand, became a photographer and artist – even though I didn’t realise at the time that I am an artist at heart – and learned to express my ideas and thoughts in English. Now, back in Germany, I really struggle to find the fluency of language required to have a meaningful conversation about matters photography or art. It just doesn’t feel right and mostly awkward to me. I miss the playfulness, humor and ebb and flow of the English language. There’s movement within English that leads to ideas which I would find difficult to develop or express in German. For me, German just doesn’t tie in with photography – or the arts – and I have decided to go back to English from here on in.
To conclude, there will be English content on this website going forward and there will be new image content as soon as I settle back into a less busy private life, which I am hopeful is beginning right now.
