Sources of Inspiration

Photography/Visual Arts

I love visual communication done well, and the stories of those who have dedicated their lives to photography are really inspiring to me, particularly when they talk in more detail about their method and what photographs mean to them. And some of these are just spectacular works of visual communication or storytelling. Check them out.

Photography and visual arts:

  • Sebastiao Salgado
  • Zana Briski
  • Korda
  • Roland Joffe
  • Christopher Nolan
  • Michel Gondry
  • Spielberg
  • Rize
  • Sixth Sense
  • Amelie
  • Gods must be crazy
  • Hotel Rwanda
  • Jonathan Harris websites

Sebastiao Salgado is the best photographer and photojournalist. His photographs are intimate, compelling, disturbing, and insightful. He works for several years on projects, covering topics of globalism from the guts of where things are going on – in mines, refugee camps, and oil fields for example. Just look at his photos, and you’ll be moved. Look a little deeper about the topics he is covering, and listen to his philosophy of photography, and you will be even more impacted. He is the most inspirational photographer I know. (An interview, yes, listen to the entire thing, or a shorter TED talk)

Zana Briski is the photography teacher in the documentary Born into Brothels . The documentary is about photography classes she taught to kids living in a brothel in India. Inspiring story.

Alberto “Korda” is the photographer who took the famous photograph of Che Guevara staring resolutely into the distance. Read a blog post about him.

Some other great film directors to look into are Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields, The Mission), Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige), Michele Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep), and Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, The Terminal). Some of the best films I’ve seen are Rize, Amelie, The Sixth Sense, the Gods Must Be Crazy, and Hotel Rwanda.

Jonathan Harris creates some of the most interesting websites I’ve ever seen. Many have an artistic “purpose” or statement. He describes some of his projects in a TED talk.

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