When the ideas run dry: dealing with creative burnout

Making creative work for a living is wonderful until it isn't. After a long run of commercial shoots, I've hit the wall more than once: every set looked the same to me, and I couldn't remember why I liked doing this. If that's where you are, here's what has helped me.

Look back at what you loved

Scroll through your old work and find the shoots that made you happy. What was different about them? For me, it was almost always the ones where I had freedom to play with an idea. Knowing that helped me ask for more of that, and build it into my own projects when clients couldn't give it to me.

Shoot something new

Burnout loves repetition. If you've shot fifty serums this month, photograph something completely different: a vegetable, a shoe, your breakfast. My series Still Good, Still Life started this way, with discounted groceries that were about to be thrown out. It turned into the work I care about most.

Get inspiration away from photography

Go to galleries. Read. Cook. Walk around a flea market and pick up things you don't need. Some of my best set ideas came from a painting, a shop window, or an old telephone on a market table, not from other photographers.

Talk to other creatives

Burnout makes you feel like you're the only one. You're not. Find your people, online or in person, and talk about it. Going back to school at HDK-Valand did this for me: suddenly I was surrounded by people making things for the sake of it, and it was contagious.

Try a technique you don't know

Learn a new kind of lighting. Try stop-motion. Shoot on film for a week. Being a beginner again is uncomfortable in a very good way, and it gets you out of autopilot.

Rest properly

Sometimes the answer is just to stop for a bit. Take real days off, without your camera. A tired brain doesn't have good ideas. It has the same idea again, slightly worse.

Fix the boring parts

Often it isn't the creative work that burns you out. It's the admin, the endless back-and-forth, the files. Look at your workflow and see what you can simplify, template, or hand off.

Make the goals smaller

Huge goals can feel crushing when you're already tired. Break things into small steps and celebrate when you finish one. Momentum comes back faster than you'd think.

Burnout doesn't mean you've lost it. Usually it means you've been giving a lot without filling back up. Be kind to yourself, and go make something just for you.