Rescuing your Inner Artist

Visual artist Francesca Lando in conversation with photographer Nicola Albon

Francesca Lando is a visual artist and the founder of Immuto, an ever changing collective of artists and ideas creating immersive spaces and stories to explore human connections. www.immutocollective.com

Nicola Albon is a street, portrait and event photographer. She tells stories. She started her working life in regional newspapers - reporting on everything from pub brawls to golden weddings. It was there that she learned the power of a story and that everyone has one to tell.

@nicolaalbon

Rescue Your Inner Artist is an online course by Francesca Lando designed to unleash the transformational power of creativity in just 4 weeks. Nicola Albon joined one of the course cohorts in March 2022.

www.immutocollective.com/courses

Above

Green and yellow - Soho Windows

Opposite

Soho Windows #1

Photos by Nicola Albon

Nicola, when did you decide you wanted to be a photographer and how did you become one?

I had wanted to be a photographer since I was a child. I loved capturing fleeting moments - like the moment a wave splashes over a rock, or a street scene where the people in it would move and it would be over. I saw moments I wanted to capture but didn’t have the equipment or knowledge to do it until in 2009, I decided to buy a DSLR and take courses. I started to take photos in every spare moment, to experiment and learn. When I was out with my camera, I was in the moment. It was pure joy to be behind the camera.

You joined the course after 13 years of practising photography. Why did you think you still needed to rescue your inner artist then?

I had lost my love for photography. In trying to make a living at it I had lost the joy of it - the reason I did it in the first place. The marketing and promotion took up more time and energy than taking photographs. I just didn’t enjoy it any more, I found other work and I gradually stopped taking photographs. I barely picked up a camera for 2 years before I started the course. But the urge to scratch that creative itch was still there deep down. I needed to find a new way to approach photography.

Was there a personal breakthrough that you would like to share?

I realised how much my lack of confidence in my own vision had contributed to me losing the joy of photography. I had focused on what would sell, what other people wanted. When people were paying me for portraits or event photography, I worried that my work wouldn’t be good enough, that they wouldn’t be happy with it. That really took the joy out of it! With my more artistic work, there were all these people who could tell me what I needed to do and what they thought was good. I had taken on board so many opinions, my head was spinning! I now understand that other people’s opinions have more to do with them than what I’m doing.

How has that changed the way you approach your practice?

I am much more aware of my inner critic and I am learning to trust my own judgement again, to allow mistakes and to stop second guessing myself.

I meditate more regularly. I stop and listen as well as look now, just enjoying a whole scene. I am not rushing to achieve something but instead I try to focus on the pleasure of the creative process and I play and experiment more. I have started drawing and gardening again – getting my hands dirty in the soil.

What would you say to other photographers who may be looking for new ways to rekindle their creative spark?

Everyday, pause, take a step back and find joy in the small things–the sound of the birds, the movement of a flower that opens in the day and closes at night. Explore the things that feed your curiosity. You need to refind that child who discovered painting by sticking their fingers in the paint pot and making a mess! Techniques and rules of composition are important of course, but sometimes you just need to look at things from a different angle. I personally found it helpful to do that with you, an artist who works in a completely different medium.

What is up next in your photography?

I have gone back to plant photography that I hadn’t done for almost 10 years. I have hur tmy hip so I can’t carry a camera very far. I am taking that as an opportunity to focus on the everyday things around me. I am looking at alternative photographic processes – it is just more physical. I am going back over my past work and re-evaluating it– asking myself what I think about it. I have begun experimenting with video. I am feeling my way. I am not judging the ideas, just going with them and seeing what happens.

Get notified first when doors for Rescue Your Inner Artist course open again. Join the waiting list at: www.immutocollective.com/courses

Use WEAREWIP at checkout to get an exclusive £20 discount.

Yellow cafe - Soho Windows