What is the photography glass? I hear you cry. Is he talking about lenses? No I’m not, what I am referring to is the glass of inspiration. A metaphor for our creative lives, which I regularly use when talking to students, to explain why research is so important to any and every photographer. The success of this metaphor in my teaching, made me feel that it would be worth sharing it here.

Imagine that when you are born you are given a glass of milk full to the brim. That milk is your creativity. It is rich, nourishing and available to you whenever you want to take a sip. When you are at school you are constantly asked to perform creative tasks and each time you are, you return to your glass of creativity. However, each time you do, the level drops a little bit. Slowly, but surely, the glass of milk is being emptied.

Obviously this is an unsustainable situation. The glass needs to be refilled, to ensure that it is there for you when you need it. So, how can it be refilled? The answer is simple, but is often misunderstood.

I used the word research at the beginning of this article and it is this word that I find to be the base of this confusion. Too often research is understood to mean hours spent poring over worthy tomes in dusty libraries. I have no issue with that approach to research, and I have engaged in it on many occasions, but it is not the only way. I often suggest that reading the McDonald’s menu can be an important form of research. Not to be flippant, but to illustrate that different forms of research are all around us.

It is this exposure to learning that refills our photography glass. Reading, watching, visiting, meeting, travelling, listening and experiencing, are all forms of research that inform the what, where, how, when and why of our photography. This can be formally or informally, it doesn’t matter how it happens, but it does need to happen to avoid creative blocks.

As part of my teaching, I insist that my students use A3 workbooks to document this research. Old fashioned pen and big paper, to act as a mind dump and reminder of things seen and found. I encourage students to make these messy and scruffy, full of scribbled notes written with a thick Sharpie, with image rich pages. I will admit that this is not initially a universally popular process, however with the passing of time, the existence of a physical artefact as a personal library is usually appreciated. You don’t have to follow this process, as you are not one of my students! However, the idea of a physical home for your research, is I think worth considering. It makes your photography glass real. A place to flick through, add to and reflect upon.

Whether you call this container for research a glass of milk, creativity or photography doesn’t matter. As you can see I have used all of these titles over the last few paragraphs. What does matter is that you understand the importance of refilling your glass.

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as 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 foto8 magazine, 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), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). 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.

© Grant Scott 2026