Lindsey Walczak Writes about Mark Dickinson Photography

Theory & Development of Creativity Interview
Mark Dickinson
Photographer

1. How old are you and how long have you been a photographer? How long have you been interested in photography?

A. As of 01/23/2009 I am 29 years old. I started photography with my first digital camera which was a Sony Mavica that held a 2.5″ floppy disc. I have been interested in photography since probably 13-14 when I remember borrowing my Uncles film camera to shoot pictures of Macaw’s he had.

2. What made you decide to become a photographer?

A. I had gone to the races with the Sony mavica at the age of 17-18 and just couldn’t get in close enough, it was a point and shoot camera, I went out and bought the Nikon camera with interchangeable lenses. It was the first ‘pro’ camera. From there I stumbled on it as a “job” in 1999 when I started as a police officer. I was off on weekends and always been ambitious with trying to become ‘something’ plus the cost in the equipment left me with the idea to do photography for people.

3. Obviously, your job calls for creativity on a daily basis. How do you come up with new photo ideas?

A. Creativity is actually difficult sometimes. Watching TV and or seeing someone who has to be creative with physical objects, molding, forming really is baffling on how they do it . Photography on the other hand is the same way, but freezing that in motion. Trial and Error works but I check out others work every time I get a chance. Seeing their techniques and tricks they use. Constantly trying new things is the key. If you don’t try you don’t know if it will work.

4. Do you consider yourself to be a creative person? On a scale of 1-10 how creative would you rate yourself?

A. I think I am somewhat creative I definitely feel that it is growing since the demands need more creativity to get ahead of the next one in line doing the same thing I am. Number, probably 6-7 being modest.

5. Where do you feel your creativity came from?

A. Imagination, I have an imagination you wouldn’t believe, not only for photography but remembering back as far as I can, with drawing, reading the encyclopedia for kids and making things I used to see in the book. Now, creativeness comes more from emotions I feel from a photo specifically or the music I listen to when I am creating the final image. I always was a visual learner and photography being visual it brings strong emotions from the visuals.

6. This is a broad question, but how did your parents raise you? Would you say they have had a large impact on you in a creative sense? Why?

A. I was raised primarily my Grandparents. Parents were around but, my mom and dad were divorced by the time I was 2 years old. Generally I was with my grandparents because of the work schedule. I don’t and can’t recall much creative teaching but from the drawings of homes, and my grandfather drawing plans for roads, I remember that both of their handwriting essentially perfect for drafting and having the ability to have an idea in your head and place it on paper for anyone to understand takes creativeness. I may have been interested in their work but not generally taught that. I used to always look at their drawings and try to replicate them So that creative aspect rubbed off on me somehow. I try to keep my print as neat and ‘draftsman’ like as possible when writing.

7. How have your teachers (High school and College) affected you?

A. Positive goals, fundamentals since they are in your life more than parents essentially. I learned a lot of environmental friendly issues from Dr. Sutton who each day at the end of class gave us information from a book of things you can do to help the environment and save money. I still do some that I remember to this date! More though keeping me in line essentially when I was younger I didn’t like school much, but most of the teachers encouraged everyone and gave a fun learning environment.

8. Who has been the most influential person in your life so far? (someone you know) Why? My grandfather must be the most influential in my early childhood. Teaching me to play baseball, fishing shrimping and boating etc. Now more when I grow up my dad has been teaching me a lot of things and having me more involved in the work field with him. I would call it a tie between them.

9. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 20 years?

A. 10 years- I hope that at least I’m still doing something I enjoy 20 years I would like to move somewhere else and live in a different location. 20 years, I will be 49. I don’t know where I see myself the first 20 years went by way to fast, I hope these slow down because I want to enjoy everything. 20 years I probably will be moved somewhere else and seeing something new!

10. Is photography the only creative activity you do or are there others?

A. I do have a lot of hobbies, creatively though I still like to build things and we have a walk through garden here that we built. I do the home repairing and remodeling which could be considered creative.

11. Do you love what you do? Explain.

A. Yes and no. I do love to take pictures. Sometimes I don’t like the results. Sometimes the clients are too self critical of them self and don’t exactly agree with a good photo and that creates headaches. Very rare, but it does happen and sometimes you feel “why am I doing this” basically if you can’t make them happy.

12. How do you stay open minded? I try to not be judgmental against anything and make any decisions based on things that may be obvious to what’s on the surface of something, being in law enforcement for 6 years I definitely felt this to be useful when listening to different versions of an incident. Open minded to photography is just where I don’t get closed off to one type of photos. I try to be diverse in all the different shots, and always try new things.

13. What do you think makes a person creative?
A. I believe it has to do with your inner-self, and not how you appear outside. In my creativeness I like to think it comes from the open-mindedness of life and not closed to just one set of rules. My next project with photos is a touchy subject on the viewer and the person I will be photographing. It will consist of helping the homeless by bringing them a sandwich and drink, take a photo and interview them about their situation. It’s difficult to approach someone you ‘think’ is homeless because what does a homeless person look like. When it goes up it will be at www.ptph.com/awakening

14. If you were a photography teacher what is the best advice you could give your students?
A. Try new things, remember light is your enemy and friend, make sure when you take a shot try something new… I was always taught, sun at your back. Try it the other way and see what you can come up with

15. What is your outlook on life? Answer this any way you like.
A. I used to want to be successful, live a nice easy life, work 20 and retire. But I don’t think it will be that way anymore, for anyone. So now it seem to have changed for the better and live happy, and live a healthy life and see if I can make some people happy along the way.

Mark Dickinson

I met Mark Dickinson when I moved to Daytona Beach from Pennsylvania for college. At the time I believe I was 19 years old and had lived in Florida for about a year. Myspace.com was becoming ever so popular and as a teenager I fell into the trap. Mark actually contacted me via myspace about doing a time for print shoot, meaning I would be his model for the photographs and he would give me free copies of the photos. I enjoyed doing a little modeling and having nice photos and he was interested in getting some practice with no pressure of producing a particular type of photograph, so it was a win-win situation for both of us. I ended up doing this for Mark a few times and was impressed with his talent for such a young photographer. When my husband and I got married we decided to hire him to take our wedding photos, which came out beautifully. My husband and I have since moved to the West Palm Beach area. If we lived closer to Mark we would definitely have used his talents again when the time called for it. Anyway, I chose to interview Mark because I knew him only as a photographer and could appreciate his talent from that perspective as opposed to having a biased opinion as most people have of their friends talents.
It did not take me long to put together a list of questions, especially after all we have already learned in class and from the book. It is clear to me that how we are raised and who influences us growing up has a huge impact on how creative we are as adults and through our life. For this reason I knew I wanted to ask Mark questions along the lines of how and when he got interested in photography and who has been the most influential in his life, etc. As a psychology major I can pull all of this together from the psychological perspective but also from a teacher perspective as I have mostly been trying to take throughout this class. I tried to put Mark in the teacher’s seat for a moment as well by asking him what kind of advice he would give his students if he were a teacher. Also, since everyone defines creativity in their own way it was important for me to find out if Mark considers himself to be creative (keep in mind I have never directly told him that he is an outstandingly creative photographer, I have just told him how pleased I am with his photos) and to find out what he believes makes someone creative.
I was not expecting a particular answer since my knowledge of creativity is deep enough to know that being open to all answers is best. A creative mind can better appreciate creative answers, which is why I left some of the questions quite open as well so as not to hint toward a particular type of answer. In psychology we learn that when experimenting, sometimes the participants will give answers that they believe the experimenter is looking for so as to please them. Maybe they are receiving some type of compensation for participating and want to provide the results that they believe are the correct ones. I wanted to do my best to avoid something like this which is why some of the questions were pretty direct but at the same time left him able to answer however he felt comfortable.
So far from this course I have learned a great deal about what creativity is, what exactly it takes to be creative under several definitions and according to those defining it, how a person can learn creativity, how it can be taught, and pretty much everything that has to do with it and more. The great part is we are still learning about creativity since we still have some chapters to cover in the book. However, just from what I have learned so far and my own intuition, I chose my fifteen questions carefully. The first two questions were to simply get to know some important facts about Mark that I did not know but felt were important starter questions for an interview of this sort. I think it is a common stereotype that we believe creative people are born with creativity, like someone who plays an instrument, and to be any good at it they must have started learning it at a young age. I can be guilty of this thinking myself, but Mark didn’t get interested in photography until his late teens; this was just the answer I was hoping for. I admit I was thinking he would say that he has always been interested in photography ever since he can remember, but this was definitely not the case. The next few questions I asked were mainly to see how Mark felt about himself as a creative person and how creativity was brought into his work. Mark does feel creativity is in demand in the photography industry and the pressure from that motivates him to be even more creative. He also said in his own words that being open minded (trying new things) is definitely key to being creative, and since is job relies on creativity he must be able to do this. How he comes up with ideas is by simply doing that: trying new things and learning from others. He openly admits that creativity is not always easy. From our book we have learned a variety of definitions of creativity, I personally like to believe that anyone is capable of being creative and can learn it, for this reason I really liked the fact that Mark learns his creativity at times from other people. I could also really relate to him when he says that music can influence how he develops and edits a picture and it is really his feelings at the time that can influence and produce something beautiful. I love to draw, especially sketching with charcoal, but my best pictures always happen when I am feeling some strong emotion, and of course music can always have an influence too. I then wanted to ask him some questions about how he was raised and who has really had an influence on him growing up. It was interesting to me that his grandparents were his primary care takers and consequently had the most influence on him creatively. Even though they did not do creative activities with him, observing his grandfather’s drafting techniques had an impact on him. Children do spend a lot of time with teachers and since we are learning how teachers can help with creativity in their students, I definitely wanted to touch upon that subject. Mark remembered one teacher in particular who made an impact on him; this is just another example that shows us how creative teachers can really be remembered. I finished off the interview with some questions about how Mark felt about creativity and his creative endeavor. It is clear to me that he has knowledge of what creativity is and how to develop and even teach it. From the interview it seems to me like he considers his own life a work in progress much like his photography.
What I was really going for in the interview was to see how my questions and Mark’s answers could relate to the material from the book in some way, whether it confirm or dispute some of the models or thoughts on creativity. I’m not really sure why anyone would believe that creativity is a gift that one must be born with in order to have. Now that I have gotten to know someone I consider to be creatively gifted and they certainly do not fit the mold for a creative genius at birth, my thoughts that anyone can learn to be creative is that much closer to being confirmed.