The world isn’t going to end if you don’t become a millionaire
Your life doesn’t end if you don’t buy a giant house
Your friends don’t stop being your friends if you don’t have a fancy job title
Life doesn’t end if you don’t attain all the things you’re supposed to want
Focus on you
Focus on your craft
Focus on what you’ve got to contribute to the world
And when the world comes crashing down
Find peace in knowing that you gave yourself a chance
by Jason Lam
“Do not die an impostor”
This came to me in a dream
It felt too important. So I will remember it here
by Jason Lam
Creating and putting your work out there is the greatest form of trust you can ever have for yourself. It is the ultimate testament. Leave nothing in the tank. Go for it. You might crash and burn. But you won't know until you try. At the end of the day, what matters most is that you keep stumbling forward no matter the self-doubt, no matter the hate, and no matter the rejection. Keep fighting. Keep creating. Keep trusting in yourself.
by Jason Lam
If you accept your flaws you can use that towards your art
Hide away from them and pretend like you’re ok, and you block yourself off from one of your greatest forms of authenticity
Because we all suffer, one way or another
What makes us unique is how we cope with it
Art is an outward expression of our willingness to survive and what we make of ourselves when things don’t quite go to plan
It’s a statement of our inherent strength
Our unifying truth
So share your story with the world
Because you are not alone in your endeavors
We're all afraid
by Jason Lam
Some art projects are meant to be throwaways
You gotta get it out
Get it over with
So you can get to your real work
Get all the clever ideas out
The cheesy jokes
The trendy fads
Be done with it
And if you have the wherewithal
Keep on going when you’re out of ideas
Because that’s where the truth lies
Your truth
by Jason Lam
Hopefully what I capture is not just someone looking into a camera, but someone who is looking for more. Yes. I am taking your picture in this very moment, but I’m also thinking about every year past this moment when looking back at this moment. What do you see? Someone who was brave? Or someone who was scared? There is no right answer, only what’s honest. And perhaps that’s what it is, that you allowed yourself to be seen. Not just by me. But by you. That’s a moment I want to help capture. Perhaps that’s what I do. I help you see you. I never thought about it that way before.
by Jason Lam
I think I figured out one reason why we like great artists.
We like great artists because they show us a part of ourselves that we have not been able to tap into yet.
By exposing the deepest parts of themselves, great aritsts, the ones we admire most, make us feel understood, less alone, and most importantly, they remind us that we, too, have it in us to tap into the deepest most parts of ourselves.
The question I then ask is, well, "Why does this even matter?"
I think the reason is because when operating in human society, it's easy to get lost playing a role. So much so, that we forget who we are. Artists bring us back to who we really are—our true nature. They remind us of the soul we have in all of us.
Great artists are like beacons in the night, emitting signals, reminding us of which direction to go.
I would like to be the light in the dark. To inspire you to be more than you are. To remind you that you are not alone. And ultimately, to never forget your true nature.
by Jason Lam
For the past decade of my life, I’ve tried to craft this perfect image of a cool, stoic, black and white photographer. Ugh, just typing it out makes me want to puke. The reasoning behind it all was because I thought I needed to present myself in that manner in order to get work and build a good reputation. After all, many of the photographers I’ve looked up to seem to project this sort of mystical aura. They almost seem like gods who can create masterpiece after masterpiece, and here I am, just struggling to pull together a shoot, yet still trying to make it look like it’s all so easy.
It’s not.
There are, in fact, many minor inconveniences about photography. You need to find the right subject. If you are shooting outdoors you need to hope and pray the weather is good. Before that, you need to find a location. And if you are going to shoot in a studio instead, well, you’re going to have to pay, and it can get quite expensive. People cancel last minute. And even if everything lines up, you might not be able to develop any chemistry with your subject to come up with good work. Lastly, some clients don’t pay. I remember all of them.
But still, I’ve persisted with this cool… calm image.
It’s fake.
At least, I think my intentions are real. No, my intentions are very real. I have absolutely no other desire but to create raw, honest, and timeless work. Outside of the basic well-being of myself and those around me, that’s all I really want to do in my life. I just want to create, and I want to create at the highest level possible. And I guess, I’m coming to the realization that continuing as this cool calm black and white figure that I’ve created for myself is not the way.
The way forward is to continue as authentically me as possible, and that means not limiting myself to an image crafted by a younger, more naive version of me.
I need to grow.
Seems to be the case, huh? No matter how much you learn, how much you grow, and how many damn lessons life has thrown at you. There’s still more.
So much more.
Moving forward, I will continue creating from the truest parts of me. I will not limit myself to this image I’ve crafted. I will let life be a little more messy. I will let my authenticity express its full self, and accept it in every form that it takes.
Onwards.
by Jason Lam
Everybody has an opinion
But not everybody creates
Your job is to create
Let everybody else decide whether they like it or not
by Jason Lam
For most of my artistic career, I always felt like there was something I was missing.
A secret.
A technique I have yet to learn to get me the phenomenal results that would set me apart from everyone else in the world.
But then I reached a point where I had to acknowledge the fact that perhaps I wasn’t missing anything.
That my way was the way.
And that was when I set myself free.
To create whatever I wanted, however I wanted.
by Jason Lam
“Be you and own it”
This was a piece of advice I received about five years ago.
To this day, I still think back to it because I feel there’s a part of me that still hasn’t fully integrated what this piece of advice has to offer.
"Be you," I think I have that part down.
Owning it?
That’s a whole different animal.
That means to be proud. To stick your neck out. To put your name on the line. And not only to just shine a light but to keep shining despite the haters trying to put you out.
This isn’t easy. No wonder I haven’t owned it.
I noticed I still take the safe route.
Like there’s a deep part in me that says, "Don’t put yourself on the line. Create a brand and come up with a fancy logo, people will love it!"
But really it’s just a dinky little costume I don in the hopes that people will like me better without having to expose too many parts of myself.
I need to be me. I need to own it.
by Jason Lam
Motivation is like a flame
Every once in a while you need to feed it
Otherwise, with no oxygen, no fuel, and no spark, it can die and be that much harder to get going again
If you ever end up getting going at all…
If you find that you’ve built a flame, find a way to keep it going
Shield it from the haters
Surround the flame with people who care for you and support you
Even go so far as protecting the flame against yourself
Because sometimes, we can be our own worst enemies
by Jason Lam
Having made art my entire life, I realize there are three main stages in the process of creativity. I’ve spent my fair share of time in every stage, (sometimes to my own demise), but that’s okay because now I get to share my learnings with you. These stages exist regardless of the medium you work in, and it serves you to know what stage you are in to help further your creative progress.
The 3 Stages of Creativity:
Stage 1 = Creation (Intuition)
This is your “shitty” work. I put quotations around the word “shitty,” because it just refers to the work being technically rudimentary. The upside, however, is the fact that the work you create here is natural, like children’s drawings. When you’re creating from this stage, you don’t think about whether what you’re doing is good or not. You don’t care who’s watching. You’re just being yourself. Whatever happens, happens. If you don’t know what this feels like just take a few seconds to scribble your signature on a piece of paper. How did you do it? You didn’t think about it. This is a beautiful place to be in. You’re creating from the purest form of you. However, we all want to get better at our craft, so that’s when we enter the next stage.
Stage 2 = Cerebral (Technical)
Technically proficient work. While this stage is awesome because you start building strong fundamentals, it can also be quite dangerous because if left unchecked, you might end up unknowingly crushing all of your natural intuition for the sake of technical perfection. I have definitely fallen into this never-ending abyss. Ceaselessly obsessing over the tiniest details because I’m oh so worried about what the “real professionals" will say. So let me just keep working endlessly through the night so I can be free from blame. Aka. Perfection. Aka. That shit doesn’t exist. Aka. Sorry, you’ve now entered the, “Wow, you’re good at what you do, but it doesn’t move me” phase. As you can tell, this stage is pretty self-conscious. You usually know you’re done with this stage when looking from a macro perspective, your work is technically good, but it’s lacking of soul. Put another way, you’re capable of making beautiful shiny objects, but it seems to be missing a key ingredient, you.
Stage 3 = Creation (Intuition) + Cerebral (Technical)
Technically proficient work that also has soul. This is the hardest stage to enter because essentially what you’re doing is trying to mend together both mind and body, which, if you have spent a good amount of time improving your craft, you may have forgotten this connection exists. This part is hard. Integrating your intuition with technical ability requires that you give up on absolute perfection. You might find that in this stage, a lot of your work may feel a little off. The whites aren’t exactly white. The blacks aren’t exactly black. Straight lines may feel a little crooked. You might find that even though you want to get the grids to match up perfectly, your intuition tells you otherwise. How in the world do you know which one is right? Well, it’s the one that feels right. Here, you are blessed with the technical ability to take what feels right and turn it into a reality. This is a beautiful place to be and it takes forever to get here.
The 3 stages of creativity seem to work this way.
You go from leading with your gut to leading with your brain, to then merging the two so you have the technical capacity if you need it, but you don’t let it guide your decisions. Instead, you let your intuition lead the way and your learned skillsets become tools that enable you to create what you truly feel inside.
It’s almost a backwards way of working, but it’s necessary. You have to get a little too technical and follow the rules a little too much in order to see for yourself, the mediocre results you will get by doing so. And then, on your own, you have to burn your old thinking, to unlearn, and to re-learn to trust your intuition once again before school, teachers, blogs (yes, including mine), and YouTube videos told you otherwise.
Nobody else can do this for you. You must embark on this journey yourself. It’s very difficult. It can last for years, even decades. I feel like I’m just beginning to learn how to merge the two.
by Jason Lam
If you want to get to your real work, rest and let your mind settle. Notice what comes to mind. Notice what you think of. Notice where your mind tends to focus. That’s the stuff you gotta make. Not those clever ideas you think of in the middle of the day, but the shit you can’t help but think of late into the night. Make that. Because that’s real. And you gotta make stuff that’s real.
by Jason Lam
So you want to change careers? Start a new project? Maybe pick up a new skill? Nah, just give up on that idea.
"It’s too late!"
Does that sound familiar to any of you? I’ve always been the culprit of this kind of thinking when starting anything new. Heck, I once thought I was too late in learning how to play the guitar.
I was 14.
Here’s the problem, no matter what you do, it will always feel like it’s too late.
The question is, why?
I think it’s a problem of who we compare ourselves to. We’re our own worst critics. We already know that. But in addition to that, we're more likely to compare ourselves to the childhood prodigy, or the celebrity, than to who we should really be comparing ourselves to.
I’m reminded of a quote:
“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today”.
- Jordan Peterson
I like this quote because, despite the fact that it might not feel competitive enough for some of us, I feel it is more relevant. It puts us in a frame of mind that encourages us to act, rather than focus on how much further we have to go.
Next time you want to start a new endeavor and feel like it’s too late, pause for a second and ask, "In comparison to who?"
by Jason Lam
As someone who loves making things, I’ve come across my fair share of roadblocks and obstacles. It sucks, and if I’m not careful, I end up getting stuck in these pitfalls for much longer than necessary. Below, I outline five common roadblocks that I often run into. I hope by sharing these with you, you can sidestep these pitfalls and keep creating great work.
The 5 Roadblocks To Creativity:
Trying to be clever - I get it, you’re a genius and you want the world to know it. However, the problem with being clever is it can often lead to work that feels gimmicky. You hit one note and that’s all there is. Your work then lacks soul. It lacks you. When you try to be clever you only have so much runway until you eventually have to come back to yourself.
Segmenting yourself - Putting all your emphasis on one branch, rather than focusing on the entire tree. To segment is to neglect yourself, to not feed yourself, to starve the entire entity of you, in the hopes that people will like you better if you simplify yourself to appeal to the common denominator. Allowing your true self to be seen is scary but that is where creativity lies. Creativity does not live in the cleansed versions of your work. It lies in that deep dark vat of failure, honesty, and vulnerability that you have to allow yourself to dive into. Go all in.
Holding back due to perfection - Instead, you should be overshooting your target. It’s easier to dial back than to come up with more work, but then all you end up doing is holding yourself back. I would like to share a quote by Anne Lamott which I feel encapsulates this idea perfectly, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”
Hiding - I know, hiding is easy. Hiding is safe. But it’s important to let your art out into the world. Your art needs to be seen and it needs to live a life of its own. Only then can you truly release and move on to more important work in your life. Part of creativity is allowing yourself to be seen, to be naked, to be embarrassed. Only when you find that you have nothing to lose do you have a chance at creating truly great work. So stop hiding, we’re all waiting for you.
Not having faith - It’s important to believe in yourself. I’ve written about it so many times I probably sound like a broken record, but the reality is if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody will. No one is going to help you put paint on the canvas. No one is going to put words on the page. No one is going to pick up the camera for you. You need to believe in yourself and if you don't, then you must find a way to do so.
That’s all folks. I hope this was beneficial to you. Remember, you are not alone. We’re all on this road to creativity together, so let’s help each other out.
by Jason Lam
Honesty is elusive
Because honesty is scary
Honesty will do its best to protect itself
Than to allow its tears and scars rear its ugly head
To be an artist is to be willing to be scared
To be scared by yourself
And of yourself
To dive deeper into who you are
And face the potentials of who you could be
Instead of who you think you should be
To create is to make attempts at telling the truth
To tell the truth is to live forthrightly ahead despite the chaos in life
Despite the chaos in your mind
To tell the truth is to admit your imperfection
That all could go wrong
But to try anyway
And to make the world a better place
Even when all is burning around you
by Jason Lam
You have to fail a couple times before you start to find your stroke.
Notice I didn’t say success. Nor did I say recognition.
Finding your rhythm is something that needs to be discovered through countless leaps, many of which will turn into failure and disappointment.
It took me a long time trying to take photographs like so and so, before I finally found my style.
It took me a long time making YouTube videos, before finally being able to just sink in and “do me”.
Writing has also been an absolute adventure in being ok with bad grammar and run-on sentences.
Finding your rhythm means taking chances, but it also means letting go of previous attempts and having the courage to admit when you are wrong.
Finding your rhythm means letting go. It means tapping into the deeper parts of you that knows when something is right, even if you can’t explain it with words and intellect.
Finding your rhythm is elusive, that is until you find it. Then it seems as if everything just falls into place.
I’ve learned, in finding my own rhythm, that you need to reach out for feedback, just as much as you need to reach in.
Eventually, what sets you apart is not what others can teach you, but what you can let out from the deeper depths of who you are.
In this way, finding your rhythm is just as much about letting your true self reveal itself to you, as it is about simply noticing it when it arrives.
by Jason Lam
Creative work sometimes gets boring
That’s when you need a rotation
Creative rotation is not unlike workout drills
You switch it up every once in a while so your body can react to new stimuli and stay engaged
Sometimes I get bored of making videos
Other times I get bored of writing
Sometimes I want to take pictures
Other times I don’t
Put another way, creation is like food, I just can’t eat the same thing all the time
Switch it up
And you might find you feel full, once again
Creative rotations
by Jason Lam
Honesty in photography is difficult because often it goes against all the rules you may learn in school. What I’ve found helpful is to not shoot digital, but to shoot film. When you shoot film, you are more precious about your shots. One roll of 35mm only allows you 36 shots, so it’s best not to waste it on moments you don’t truly care about. When shooting digital, you have the privilege of reviewing your work immediately. This isn’t so good. Honesty isn’t something to be immediately analyzed with your brain and learned techniques. It’s something to be felt, regardless of proper exposure, composition, and focus. What matters most is whether or not something moved you. Who cares if it’s off-center? Who cares if it’s not aligned with the rule of thirds? Who cares if the subject is cut off? With enough practice, you might be able to start shooting digital again, but this time, with a stronger connection with your intuition and what you feel.
To this day, my favorite camera is still the Olympus Stylus Epic. It’s not the best, but it’s compact and easy to use. It doesn’t allow me to think too much. There aren’t too many buttons and no digital screen with a menu full of options. It’s just the viewfinder and the shutter.
Take the picture or don’t. Most importantly, don’t lie to yourself.
by Jason Lam
