As you would expect the various touch points I have with photography lead me into a constant stream of conversations with people engaged with the medium. Those conversations are with a broad section of photographers. From those who have just left school and who are just starting out on their photographic journies to those in their late sixties with a wealth of experience behind them. And everyone in-between. Professional photographers, students and enthusiasts and yet there is one common theme to all of my conversations. That of tiredness.

Not my tiredness or physical tiredness but photographic tiredness. Mental creative tiredness. A sense of being drained of creativity and passion due to an overload of visual, written and verbal information. Such an overload can be overwhelming resulting in a sense of bewilderment. I get that. I also get that this is a situation that is not the fault of the photographer but the envirnoment they find themselves in.

Professional photographers are getting tired of being disrespected and being used as production-line content providers. Enthusiasts are getting tired of landscape and street photography due to the saturation of a replication of dominant aesthetics. The over reliance on post-production has also moved them into being screen image manipulation obsessives rather than pure image capturers. Students knowledge of photography has become dominated by out of context images on Pinterest and Instagram. They have become tired of the effort required to get ‘likes’ and ‘noticed’ when in truth these things are not important.

I am sure that many of us are tired of keeping up with the news, the econimic state of the country and just keeping plates spinning in our lives. So, the addition of a photographic tiredness to the mix is both unwanted and detrimental to our enjoyment of the medium. In fact it can destroy it completely.

What’s the answer? Well, I would say that the answer is simple but perhaps easier said than done. Stop worrying about your photography and just have fun! Reconnect with why you started in the frst place. Stop listening to the concerns inside your head and the noise outside of it. Go back to the beginning.

I often find that the tiredness I hear about is one borne of complexity, of over thinking and anxiety. I am a great believer in keeping things simple with a heavy dose of stoicism and those beliefs constitute the basis of any advice I give. Therefore, I suggest a focus on subject matter and ensuring that the subjects you photograph matter to you. Not to anyone else but completely and utterly to you. That you block out whatever you are trying to achieve and focus on the moment. Live in the moment and do not try to control the future. Make photographs that are true to you.

This is the beginning of letting go and shaking yourself free of the tiredness. Of having fun just like you did when you first picked up a camera. Now, this may sound like a load of new age nonsense to some of you. I understand. It’s easy for someone to sit down at a laptop and knock out a few well meaning sentences with no experience or knowledge of what they speak. However, this is not the case here. I have worked with photographers young and old for forty years and over that time I have become used to identifying universal themes that photographers are having to address and overcome. Most recently this has been in the form of setting up and teaching an MA in Photography at Oxford Brookes University where I lead the photography programmes. Therefore my advice here is based on real life experience.

I think we all get tired at different points of our lives and feel the need for change to get us out of our stupor. Photography should be the perfect tool for helping us do that. In fact I believe that it is. The only thing stopping us from using it in this way is us! Through conversation and the introduction of photographers and work that you are not aware of that old passion can be reignited. New ways can be suggested and inspiration begins to appear. I know this works thanks to the feedback I receive from my students. You can join a course like mine or you could follow my advice and make it work for yourself. Whatever path you choose never forget that tiredness and fatigue are often caused by poor sleep, an unhealthy lifestyle, stress and depression. Photography for fun could just be the answer to help you combat all or at least some of these.

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work zas a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

Scott’s book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is on sale now.

© Grant Scott 2025