Theory Helsinki bus station: a proven path to recognition in any case
Motivation / / December 19, 2019
What is the essence of the theory
In 2004, Arno Rafael Minkkinen (Arno Rafael Minkkinen), the renowned Finnish photographer whose work is represented in the most famous museums of modern art, spoke to the students of Boston. In his speech, he recalled his childhood spent in the capital of Finland. More precisely, the central area of the city, where the bus station of Helsinki. Not far from it you can see the central railway station named after Eliel Saarinen (Eliel Saarinen), The National Museum and the National Theater of Finland, as well as other architectural gems of the city, built by the canons Art Nouveau. In general, with a vintage Leica here is what to do.
More than 20 platforms scattered throughout the area of the bus station. Next to each platform hanging plate numbers of buses, which are sent from here. In the beginning, at least for one kilometer, all the buses traveling on the same route, occasionally slowing down to a stop.
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Now metaphor. Each bus stop - it is one year in the life of the photographer. Consequently, the third stop is equivalent to three years. Suppose, for three years, you learned the subtleties of photos of nude figures. Let it be a bus number 21.
During this time you have any achievements that you have decided to show at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Curator asks you: "Are you familiar with the work of Irving Penn (Irving Penn)» It turns out that his number 71 bus was traveling on the same road. Or you go to Paris Galerie Maeght, where you are reminded that the bus number 58 - Bill Brandt (Bill Brandt) - previously traveled in the same direction.
Shake the hand shackles that what you did three long years, others have made for a long time. but life too shortTo mark time! Gathering his strength, you call a taxi to get back to the railway station and jump on the bus, leaving from the other platform.
This time you are planning on doing color pictures of people on the beach. You grind away over three years, and by submitting your photos again hear horrifying comments: "Do not you know about the works of Richard Misrcha (Richard Misrach)? What about Sally Mann (Sally Mann)? ».
You bullet flies out of the bus, take a taxi rush to the new platform and new bus. And it happens over and over again throughout your creative life: each new job is always compared with other people.
What to do?
It's simple. Stay on the bus. Stay in the fucking bus!
Why? Give yourself time, continue to look for yourself without regard to others, and a little later you will notice the difference.
Buses that begin to move from Helsinki bus station, go one way only a small part of the way, perhaps a kilometer or two. Then they are leaving and going on his own route. Bus 33 should № north and № bus 19 is directed to the south-west. Perhaps the numbers 21 and 71 as a pair of birds will still be flying around, but soon they are waiting for the separation.
Separation of roads will change your life. As soon as you feel the difference between their own and others' work, which you so admire, and which equaled hard all these years, you know: the hour of breaking. Suddenly, your photos will notice. Now you create your own, with your taste and style, and the difference between your photos and that they affect in the beginning, becomes apparent. Take your vision and begin to appreciate.
And very soon the critics interested in what makes your photos by Sally Mann pictures and what you were doing at the start of his career. Now even the old works, which appeared 20 years ago, are beginning to buy for very good money. You get to the end. This could be the end of your creative career or end of life. Whatever it was, all that you have done in that time, and now at a glance: imitation and honing skills, discoveries, ups and falling, Mature personality.
Why? You do not got off the bus.
Whether perseverance will lead to success
Undoubtedly, the sequence - is the foundation skill. Success is impossible without the monotonous repetition and love for the routine. However, the theory of the bus station of Helsinki to clarify certain details that are often overlooked.
- Students spend in the classroom more than 10 000 hours. But if they become experts in each discipline of study? Of course not. Information is quickly forgotten as soon as the exhaust.
- Office worker sits at the computer for at least a few hours a day. Within a few years he will spend in excess of 10 000 hours on the e-mails. Hard to doubt his skills, business writing. But will he be able to create a novel? Most likely no.
- Many people go to the gym for decades. Now their body and physical form is not inferior figure and constitution of the best athletes? Unlikely.
We should not just do a lot of the same type of work, but also to revise it, to correct and improve.
Why do I need to think about their work
The usual student parses the material once. Good student revises it again and again, searching for details and discovering something new. Ordinary employee writes an e-mail message and sends it immediately. Most novelists rework the head again and again, bringing text to perfection. The average gym visitor spends recklessly typical workout every week. Elite athletes watching every repetition, constantly improving his technique. Rethinking and correcting more important than quantity.
Let us return to the metaphor of the buses. Photographers who are transplanted to the new route after two or three stops, still stuffed with those 10 000 hours. But they do not work on the bugs. They spend time searching of the route on which no one has ever gone. Instead, they should look back and reconsider their old ideas - this is the key to creating something unique and unrepeatable.
Staying on the bus, you have to rethink and are improving their work until until you create something great. The only way your inner genius can express themselves.
The formula of "10, 000 hours = success" is described by the Canadian writer and journalist Malcolm Gladwell (Malcolm Gladwell) in the book "Geniuses and outsiders. Why is one everything and the other nothing?». It is believed that an expert in a particular field can become a cost of deliberate practice 10,000 hours. It's a long way, but it does not guarantee, if for no repetition of critical analysis and balanced consideration.
Which bus will you choose?
Each of us is a creator in a particular way. The manager who is promoting new ideas. Accountant who plans every penny. A nurse who is thinking how to help the patient. And, of course, writer, designer, artist, musician, and any other creative nature, which shares his talent with the world. They are all creators.
Any person who drives the company forward, will fail. It is a pity that all too often we respond to setbacks by calling the taxi service, assuming that the new bus will go smoother. Although instead should linger and reflect on their efforts.
However, to begin with have to take a strong stance.
On which bus you sit down? What you bind your life? On what business you are willing to sweat for decades, constantly looking back and making improvements?
No one knows which bus is better. But if you want to realize themselves to the maximum, will have to choose only one of them. selection really difficult. But it's your choice, and you should do it. And once you decide - do not go with the bus to the end!