The past four years have been beyond interesting in all things growth for me. Thanks to three different auto-immunes Alopecia areata, Graves disease, and Lichen Sclerosus, I got to take a VERY good look at how I was living my life.
I pulled up a train crash speeding at about 100km an hour before it hit a wall and in the process have learnt some of the most marvelous life lessons of all time.
Jumping off a cliff into a new life 18 years ago, leaving Australia for Italy and a business for photography brought me so many insights into who I am and why I am here. There was so much to learn once I woke up from the trance I had been living that I couldn’t wait to get started.
There was photography and Florence, museums and art, a new way of living and being. And there was so much love and joy.
Love for life, for the small things, the world around me and the adventure I was on. The joy was daily in riding a bike through the streets of Florence, in learning a new language and the belly laughs for the mistakes I made and finding a community.
But somewhere in between Florence and the auto-immunes, my life got way more serious, I moved to Paris, got busy trying to make it work and being back in a big city.
I credit the auto-immunes with giving me my joy back. They gave me the kick up the bum I needed to take responsibility of my life again and start living it the way I wanted to live it.
I got back on the JOY TRAIN.
And yes I did and do eat a million fruit and vegetables, Yes I did stop all those chemicals and loads of other things (YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT HERE) but the healthiest thing you can do for your nervous system is to laugh, to share, to find joy and to allow yourself pleasure with a capital P.
Isn’t this the best news you have had all year! Yes folks, the green juices are fabulous but your nervous system needs a break from doing, from the stress of work and life and all things serious. It needs to dance and ride bikes, it needs to laugh till tears come out your eyes and your stomach hurts, it needs to play football with your kids and lie in a park and do nothing. It needs to paint and to garden, to smell the roses and to go fishing.
The more little breaks you give that poor shot to pieces nervous system of yours, the more it will fire up the hormones we need and get them doing what they are meant to be doing instead of freaking out and flooding our body with cortisol.
So lovelies, light a candle, buy yourself some flowers, book a massage because it’s good for you.
Five Tips for Getting the Joy Back
Remember what makes you happy and build it into your daily or weekly life, it can be as simple as riding a bike or gardening
When you feel like life is too much ask for help or when someone offers it accept it. Doing it all on our own is no longer a badge of honour
Build something that makes you feel good into your life. You decide how often. A swim, a massage, a walk in the mountains or a dance lesson.
Make frequent breaks in your day.. Yes you are allowed to rest. Sit down for 10 mins if your job is on your feet or vice-versa get up from the computer and do some stretches. Take time to meditate or do nothing, lie on the grass and look at the sky.
Disconnect – being connected all the time keeps our nervous systems on call. So make some rules around the use of your phone and social media so you can be present with the ones you love
The super big bonus of letting your nervous system calm down is that you let a little light into your heart and soul. And when the light gets in you get a little piece to your puzzle.
Before I became a photographer and moved to Italy circa the year 2000, this time of the year I would go into a sort of agitated anxious state. I would start calling all my single girlfriends and see what they were doing for Christmas because there was nothing like Christmas that made me feel isolated, lonely and not shaping up.
Often we would book a trip to Bali on Christmas Day after we had spent the day with our families so we could jet away from our lives and leave the season ‘to be jolly’ (cause there was nothing jolly about it for us) behind us just like it never happened.
I have had a lot of time lately to reflect on why it took me so long to get back on a path that was authentic to me. I was looking for the answers in the wrong places, for almost 20 years I looked for the answers outside of me.
I looked to ‘Mr Right’ to love me and when he wasn’t around I felt unloved. I looked to others to nurture me and I spent so much time running around doing things that had no purpose to fill up my time that I never had time to sit, reflect and look inwards.
I searched madly for it all outside of me but always came up empty handed and disappointed. So folks, this is about where in the story you put on the Whitney Houston track the ‘The Greatest Love Of All’ and stand up and sing with your biggest voice because that’s actually what happened to me. My 20 Year detour started when I stopped searching outside me and that’s when life feel into place (or you know what I mean).
Well, you are probably thinking easier said than done!
How do you get to that place where you actually believe it?
Shannon Fricke and I are using our stories to show there is a way to live your life that is authentic to you with joy, happiness and personal reward.
Although our stories are vastly different we have used the same framework to overcome our personal and creative challenges and continue to find our paths to our authentic selves, our new found creativity and joy.
If you would like to join us for an open discussion with like-minded souls and explore the possibilities we are having a one day workshop in Sydney December 17th and you can read all the details HERE.
For anyone who knows my story I got my first break in Marie Claire and I am so thrilled to have a little interview and feature on my photographer with them.
Check out these few excerpts from the interview:
“Her iconic ‘Italian Joy’ and ‘Jeune Fille En Fleur’ photographs have become collectable items for fine-art fans worldwide. But it’s Carla Coulson’s azure-blue beach shots that have sent our wander lust levels stellar. Now living in Paris, Carla Coulson has her eye set on snapping the Med’s luxury shorelines next. Here, she speaks to Nicola Moyne about following her heart, Leicas and the art of shooting beach life”
“What advice would you give any aspiring photographers out there?
Follow your heart and don’t try and make money out of it too soon. There is an enormous value in letting your eye and style develop without the pressure of a job. It’s wonderful to let your heart lead you and see where it takes you. If you give yourself enough time in the beginning and develop a style and an opinion, it will ultimately make your journey to wherever you want to go shorter.”
If you want to read a little behind my shooting and visual philosophy click HERE.
Sending big love to the folks at Marie Claire for their ongoing generosity..
One of the questions I am asked often is ‘how do I find my style as a photographer’?
So let’s look first at what is a style or vision?
Photography is a personal vision. It is an individual way of looking at the world and capturing a photo that tells a story.
No two photographers see the same subject in the same way. Your particular taste and vision will set you apart from other photographers and this is your precious gift. A photographer’s vision can be seen repeated in their photos over and over again, like a brand.
The great Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt’s trademark black and white images of dogs, street photography and portraits are infused with humour, wit and romance. Steve McCurry another Magnum star almost works exclusively in vibrant colour with a more serious tone and if you look closely at his portraits they are always simple and engaging.
Robert Doisneau exclusively used black and white and his images of Paris are romantic, sweet and always with a dash of innocence. You can almost feel the kindness of this man in his images.
The great Elliott Erwitt also has this to say about his style and his choice of subject matter. Erwitt mentions in interviews that ‘his colleagues in Magnum are generally seen as more “serious” photographers– who photograph more “serious” events.’
However Erwitt tries to not take himself too seriously: “Well, I’m not a serious photographer like most of my colleagues. That is to say,I’m serious about not being serious.”
One thing that all these photographers have in common is that you can easily recognize their work without seeing their ‘byline’ (byline is a photographer’s or a journalist’s name printed alongside their story in a magazine). Their work is their byline.
They all have their own vision, their own style of lighting, emotions they wish to portray, their own presentation of their photos, mood of their work, personality and their own special way that they communicate through their images
When I arrived in Florence in the year 2000, I didn’t have access to a huge group of friends or contacts but I did have Popi (my gorgeous landlady) and her friends. I started there, I asked to photograph them, the kids I shared the house with and the people on the streets of Florence and slowly the people I would interact with each day.
I started messing around, taking photos that I thought I wanted to take from portraits to fashion inspired photos. I followed my heart and this is where it led me. I now realise the values I held dear and subjects that were in my subconscious at the time came through.
LOVE AND EMOTIONS
Love and lack of it in the previous years had been a big theme for me and when I arrived in Italy it seemed like I was surrounded by it. Photography has always been about the emotions for me. Capturing all those outwardly expressed emotions in Italy came naturally. I couldn’t believe the amount of public displays of affection and I think it was also a reflection of the highly emotional state I felt after leaving my life in Sydney to find something I loved – photography.
A lot of what we shoot as photographers is about how WE FEEL.
MOVEMENT
I had been trapped in an office for the best part of my adult life and movement felt like the opposite to me, it represented life, action and adventure. I was obsessed with movement of all kinds including families on vespas, people of all ages riding bikes in Florence or driving strange little vehicles in the Italian countryside. Movement has become part of my style as I am always attracted to it no matter whether it is vespas, cars or people. I love blur and the emotions that come with movement in a photo.
My obsession with religious iconography had to do with my lack of religious grounding in Australia and arriving to the overload and beauty of religious iconography in Italy. I was a magnet to a Madonna! I was obsessed with every tabernacle on a street corner, statues of Madonna’s in churches and religious art and just kept shooting them. I never asked why or what I would do with them but I think it comes back to my instinct.
I was attracted to the emotion they portrayed and just went with it.
ELEGANCE
I have always loved fashion and had long been a lover of fashion magazines and beautiful clothes. This love flowed over into photography even though I was shooting travel and life photos in the beginning it was often reflected.
I loved the innate elegance of Italians and would stop well-dressed people in the street and ask if I could take a photo. If I had the choice I would seek out someone dressed at the market in a certain way or with the right apron and boots. Clothes have always been a big deal for me and they are still are a big part of how I love to shoot. They really help make an image stronger.
Confession: I have ‘tweaked’ or created photos from the beginning, dressing friends and even Francesco on holidays to go out and take a photo that I wanted or felt would express something.
I love things that make me laugh in life and even more when I can capture it in a photo. I think this comes back to who we are as photographers, often what we shoot is how WE FEEL OR THINK. IT IS OFTEN ABOUT US.
BLACK AND WHITE
I shot and printed almost exclusively in black and white in the early years and as I didn’t have an end use at the time for my images, I did what pleased me. Black and white became a huge part of my style and in the early years I loved shooting at night and would always end up with half a roll of film in my camera the day afterwards and go out and shoot in daylight – hence I always had a lot of grain in my images – all by accident.
SUBJECTS
There is a certain romance, nostalgia and love of all things old and falling apart in my style (except for people). You will probably notice in most of my travel images there is rarely a modern building or a clean hard edged interior, you are more likely to find a building or street with an ancient story or full of life, walls with peeling paint and faded colours. This was and is a reflection of my love for Europe and its stories and layers.. just like life.
Don’t be in hurry to develop your ‘style’. It will come naturally if you take the photos that you love and from the heart. Try not to be too influenced by everyone around you.
Ask yourself what are your values, what is important to you?
Keep shooting the photos you want to take and listen to your inner voice. Don’t ask why
Ask yourself what is it you want to say in your images?
With time your style will come without you even realising it. You may find using a particular camera, a particular lighting setup, a post production process, a lens, injecting energy and emotions or using a certain depth of field may create an effect you like and your natural style will develop.
The post production choices that you make to present your photos is also a big contributor to your style, whether you choose to use high contrast black and white, punchy colour, faded vintage colours or low contrast sepia images all becomes part of your photographic look.
Music portrait photographer Anton Corbijn found his style by accident. He decided against using a flash or a tripod when shooting his portraits — he claims that he’s never been good with the technical stuff — and because of that he developed an instantly recognizable style using high speed grainy film early on.
“Your handicap is your strongest asset,” he explains. “I made it work for myself, and then somehow that becomes how you take pictures, which is different to a lot of people. I mean, you always strive for the perfect thing, but then life gets in the way. A lot of my better pictures have slight imperfections… I look back at the old pictures, and I made so many mistakes.”
I hope this helps you on your path to finding your style and personal vision.
“But I tell you, for me, each photographer brings his own light from when he was a kid, in this fraction of a second when you freeze reality, you also freeze all this background. You materialize who you are.” Sebastiao Salgado
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