Working within a boundary will make your work better.

Why is working with constraints so important to our work?

Constraints allow us to create our best work. They place a boundary around us and the task at hand.

We could give up and use the constraint as an excuse and create work that is purely satisfactory, or we can push hard against everything within the boundary, causing friction and a creative nuclear reaction, producing energetic, vibrant work that blows everything else out of the water. This is how we become one of the best in a niche and make it OUR niche.

In photography terms, a white or grey background and close head & shoulder crop are constraints widely used in Headshot photography. We often crave more.

But working with these tight boundaries allows us to focus our energy into working harder with the subject, bringing out the most natural and real version of them possible. It seems obvious that the work created will be a much deeper quality and become the best work for that task!

There’s a quote by Richard Avedon about his work.

“I’ve worked out of a series of no’s. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no’s force me to the yes. I have a white background. I have the person I’m interested in and the thing that happens between us.”
– Richard Avedon