Ed Schlotzhauer

An artists journey

Category: Curiosity

Curiosity
I admit, I am consumed with curiosity. It drives a lot of what I do. It strongly pulls me in different directions. More and more I see that it is curiosity that drives a lot of my creativity.
This is an update of an article I wrote in 2020.
Curiosity
What is curiosity, really? Is it a learned skill or an inherent personality trait? Is it good or bad?
Dictionary.com says it is “the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness”. That is a good start. Like any large concept, there is a lot more depth to it than we get from a short statement.
I like that it is presented as a “desire”. There is a longing. Something burns inside you that causes you to pursue things. A variety of things. You never know where it will lead you.
Inquisitiveness is a great word, too. It implies exploration, searching, investigating. Curiosity is the basis of learning. I mean real learning, not what passes for it in our education system. Learning comes from wanting to know about something and working to figure it out.
I am no authority, but my observation is that some people have a greater tendency to curiosity than others, but it is a skill that most people could develop. If they really want to. Most little kids seem to burn with curiosity, but life, upbringing, and our education system tends to beat it out of most people.
Educational researcher Edmund Duncan says that by age 10 or 11 most kids have stopped asking questions and by 25 less than 2% can think outside the box. Recent findings say that of Americans age 45-54, 60.9% have not read a book in the last year. This is concerning. Actually, it is terrifying.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Afflicted
In one of his books, Jonathan Kellerman has a character say “Most people aren’t overly afflicted with curiosity. It separates the creative and the tormented from the rest of the pack.” I think he has captured the idea very well. But does being afflicted with curiosity imply we are tormented?
There is a well-known stereotype of the semi-crazed starving artist. Like many stereotypes, it has some grains of truth but generally is not an accurate model.
The starving artist? Well, yes, most artists are starving unless they have another means of support. Unless they become the one in a thousand who is so good at not only art but marketing and sales that they can carve out a reputation and make good money.
But the tormented, half crazed artist? I don’t think I have ever met one. And I know quite a few artists in various mediums. Probably van Gogh is the prototype of the image. But, well, he had issues that were not directly related to being an artist.
So, I dispute that the curious are either tormented or afflicted. It seems to me that the curious are generally happier and more content than others.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
What is “not curious”
Sorry, I can’t even picture what it would be like to not be curious. I think of Sherlock’s quote in the great BBS series “Sherlock”:
Dear God. What is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring.“
Unlike Sherlock, I’m not trying to be arrogant or insulting, It’s just so far from me that I really can’t imagine it.
Being curious and researching it ☺, some traits of the incurious seem to be:
- Sticking to their comfort zone
- Being resistant to change
- Not seizing opportunities
- Not living a passionate life. They seem to move through life with few ups or downs.
- Little personal growth and development
This is horrifying to me. Of course, we all feel safer in our comfort zone, and we all resist change, but the downsides of giving in to that are too costly to accept. At least, for me.
The items on this list that resonate most with me (most irritate me?) are no passion and no personal growth. Society today disguises activity as passion. You were not “passionate” about going to a concert last weekend. You may have been excited, and it was probably a lot of fun, but you were still just a spectator. In the same way you can’t be passionate about a Disney ride. It is all manufactured sensation. The person in the next car gets the same experience. Passion come from doing something through your own effort, often something creative.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
It doesn’t matter at all if you are a “success” or a “failure” at what you do. What matters is that you put yourself into it and gave it your best shot.
And I cannot understand why a person would go through even a day without learning something new, improving some skill, or at least meditating. Not improving yourself would be like spending all day sitting and watching TV.
Curious photography
Enough ranting. We’re supposed to be talking about our journey as artists. How does curiosity relate to that?
Among all its other benefits, curiosity helps to keep our work moving on in new directions. It is too easy to get trapped by the past, especially if we have had a little success. Do you feel you are known as the bird photographer or the portrait photographer or the food photographer? Does that fence you in mentally, making you feel like you must keep trying to repeat past successes?
Curiosity can help lead you to new interests, or new ways to imagine what you used to do. Use a different lens. Go somewhere new. Do a personal project in a different genre. Try intentional camera movement (ICM) or long exposures or black & white.
These are not just for the sake of doing something different (although that helps). Making a change in how you normally work helps you see things in a new way. It fractures some of the mental channels we unconsciously flow in, our comfort zone.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Intelligent curiosity
It is said that being curious involves asking “what if” about things you are doing. This is true, but it should not be a mindless, random process. The what ifs are based on knowledge and an intelligent assessment of possibilities.
Chemists may discover useful new compounds while mixing unlikely components. But they also have knowledge and training that informs them that certain things tend to go boom when mixed. So, unless boom is part of what they are looking for, they would avoid things they know to be dangerous and impractical.
Now, our photography doesn’t usually react so dramatically, but still, not everything we might could do is realistic. For instance, wandering alone at night through a bad section of town to get some gritty urban shots may not be a good idea. Hanging out over a cliff to get a new perspective may not be intelligent unless you have taken safety precautions.
But they are in the right spirit.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Practice it
I am sure curiosity can be developed and enhanced, even if we think we don’t have a curious bone in our body. After all, you are reading this.
Curiosity is an attitude of wanting to know more, to discover what will happen if I try this. Read encouraging material (like this ☺). Find instructors who lift you and watch their videos. Not to imitate them, but to be inspired. Go to museums and galleries and art shows. It will give you new insights. Put down your camera and read a biography of a historical figure.
But most fundamentally, practice, practice, practice. Yes, practice curiosity. When you go out shooting, determine to do at least one thing different, even if you don’t think it will make good pictures. Practice a mindfulness where you really look at what is around you. When you have a question about something, research it. Google can be useful occasionally. And take side trips to related things that tweak your curiosity. New ideas will be sparked.
I will confess that I go back to pre-internet days. When I was a kid, I had to look up things in an Encyclopedia. Do you know what those are? It was one of the greatest things I could have done. Sure, I found what I was looking for to complete the school report. But the real benefit and excitement was all the interesting things I found along the way. That was an advantage of having to flip through pages of a book rather than having an algorithm take me directly to the answer I was looking for. I found unexpected treasures. And it helped make me more curious.
What are you curious about?
What are you curious about? Look at it like this: what are 2 new things you have learned or tried this week?
Wanting to be curious without doing anything about it does not get you there. Like most things, it takes action to make it real.
Let me give a few curiosity related highlights from my last week. Not to make it sound like I am something special. Just to give you some encouragement.
- Took a video class on live audio mixing
- Took a class on selling to wholesalers.
- Watched 2-3 video classes on Photoshop and Lightroom techniques
- Did some ICM photography for the first time in a long time.
- I saw some opportunities to composite some of my images and did some experimenting.
- Put together a submission for a gallery show (if you want to evaluate your work, force yourself to edit down to a very small number of images in a portfolio).
- Go out 5 days with my camera and 1 lens, challenging myself to be mindful and find fresh material in the same old locations.
- Read an online photography magazine
- Read about Theodore Roosevelt’s early political experiences and his time out west.
- I wrote this blog, which I consider being curious about curiosity.
That is just some I can remember. I don’t consider this very special. It is basically a typical week.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Just do it
Curiosity is a learned behavior and a practice. Don’t think you are curious? Maybe you just haven’t given in to it for too long. Go back to being like you were as a kid. Be curious about everything. Ask questions and, now that you are an adult, learn how to answer them. It will keep you young. But it is not just about finding answers. The exploration is at least as important. It takes you outside the familiar and teases you with new things to be curious about.
I firmly believe curiosity is a path to creativity. It has never worked well for me to say ,”I’m going to be creative today.” But I have often been stimulated by curiosity to follow new ideas to new ends.
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein
May 28, 2025
Map vs GPS
It really is the journey, not just the destination.
There are 2 major ways to navigate as we travel. The main choice or conflict is map vs GPS. There are alternatives, like being on a tour or “dead reckoning”, but I will rule those out for now.
GPS
By GPS, I mean, of course, a Global Positioning System app on our phone or in our car. What an astonishingly useful technology. Who would have thought not that long ago that we would have such precise navigation available to anyone, anywhere, right in our hand?
GPS is an important supporting technology that aids our great transportation system.
When we are going to an unfamiliar place, who hasn’t entered the destination in their device and welcomed the detailed, turn by turn directions? Or been annoyed by the nagging “Proceed to the route” admonition when we veer off for some reason. Even for familiar places, we often use the app, because the magic of the internet allows it to provide real time route updates to take us around congestion or road construction. Amazing.
I would say that most of us expect this level of service now. These wonderful apps will take us by the best route direct to our destination with little decision making or navigation required by us.
But that can be the problem.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Physical map
Do you remember maps? Like that image at the top of this article? You know, those folded paper things that always seem to tear when we try to open them. And spread out to cover everything around us.
Some of you may never have held an actual map.
What is it? A map is a representation of an area on a 2-dimensional print. There are limitless kinds of maps, but I am only talking about geographic maps. Usually, a Mercator Projection. Sorry. TMI, but I like detail.
A typical map shows cities and towns, roads, lakes, rivers, and oceans. Some have topographic lines to show elevation and some use shading to give an idea of elevations. It is not unusual for them to show train tracks, parks, monuments, military installations, and other features of interest.
The area the map can show is a function of the amount of detail wanted and the allowable size of the map. To “zoom in” and see more detail means it cannot cover as much area.
In a large place like the United States, a fairly detailed map may cover a state. In other places, it might show a whole country. We can also get very detailed topographic maps that cover only a few miles in great detail.
So, a map shows us a top-down view of what is there, but it is up to us to interpret and use the information and navigate to where we want to go.
That’s more work. Why would anyone choose that over a GPS app? That is where it gets interesting to me.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
What does it say about us?
Yes, indeed, why ever use a map? I think it has to do with our goals, our personality, and, if we are photographers, how we work and think.
A GPS app will take us to a destination with little thought or planning on our part. We do not have to pay much attention to where we are or what we are going through.
It does its job efficiently. It is a faithful robot that does not distract us with sightseeing suggestions or side trip possibilities.
Get there. Check it off. The destination is the goal.
A map, though, can be a storybook of possibilities. It is a tool for our curiosity. Look, there is a waterfall just a few miles away. And that small, twisty road through the National Forest looks a lot more interesting than this Interstate highway. I wonder what that is over there. Oh, there’s where that town is. I’ve wanted to visit it. It’s just a little way off this route. That is worth a look. Maybe I will even stay the night there.
A map shows the layout of everything that is around. It is kind of like browsing a buffet. I can pick a little of this, some of that, sample this other that I have wanted to try. It doesn’t try to guide us along any path. That is up to us.
There are often endless possibilities, depending on what I am interested in and how I want to use my time. I select where to go and how to get there. I know that, for me, my interests are usually in the small towns and back country rather than big cities and major highways. If I have the choice, that is what I pick.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Use the right tool
GPS and maps are both just tools. Each has strengths and weaknesses. It is up to us to choose the best tool to use for the need at hand.
If the destination is the goal and time is tight, GPS will take us there directly and give precise directions. But if we have the luxury of choosing our own path on our own schedule, maps let us see an overview of the area. It lays out the information visually for us to see and to decide and choose. I don’t think I have ever discovered anything great that I wanted to photograph just following GPS directions.
Map vs GPS. They are not actually in competition. I use both. For example, I recently got back from a 5000 mile driving trip. I used GPS to navigate to specific destinations, like to a hotel, once I got close. Otherwise, I used maps to let my imagination wander. And I did wander. Through swamps, finding a hidden winery, along back roads in the Ozarks, to some charming places I knew nothing about along the gulf coast. None of these were things my GPS would have suggested. I would have hated to miss any of them.
It is said that it’s the journey, not the destination. I try to live that way. I’m partial to maps. GPS is excellent for getting to a destination. Maps, though help me discover a more interesting journey.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Try maps again
I encourage you to try maps again. When I see a detailed map like the section at the top, my pulse quickens, and I start getting excited. Sitting in a hotel room at night with a high quality, detailed map spread out on the table, visualizing possibilities for the journey ahead can be like reading a great story. But in this case, we are writing our own story.
After all, we are creatives. We do that.
To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Getting maps
The image at the head of this article is a very small section of a National Geographic map of southern France. This covers about 70 miles by 50 miles. I have been to this area, and I used this very map for navigation. NatGeo has become my preferred map source.
The best map providers I know of are National Geographic and Michelin. They have an amazing catalog of detailed maps. Some are printed on a plastic coated, tear proof paper, like the France map above.
If you are in the USA and are a AAA member, you can get maps from them for free. Just go to your nearest AAA office. These are good maps, I use them, but they tear easily. But then, free…
These map provider suggestions are for your information. I do not receive any compensation.
About these images
All of these images (other than the map image, of course) are places that had to be discovered by exploring while using maps. None of these could easily have been navigated to by GPS unless someone gave you a precise location. One of them is a location on that map of France.
Try maps. They may change how you travel and photograph.
May 14, 2025
Staying Creative
Since you are reading this, you probably call yourself a “creative”. That is great. But creativity seems to be cyclic. Staying creative is a continuous process. Some would say a struggle.
Cycles
Creativity is not a constant level. We experience creative peaks where exciting new work seems to burst from us. But we also have low points. In those troughs we don’t feel like we can generate any creative ideas. It is depressing and scary.
The encouraging reality is that this is normal. We do not and cannot operate at a peak of creative output all the time. We empty the tank. The reserve has to be refilled. It can’t be predicted or planned, but at some point it seems to dry up. But keep in mind that we really do not know what creativity is.
We know it is cyclic. And we know it will come back at some point. But when we are in that valley it can seem like a time of doom and gloom. Will it ever come back? Have I used up all the creativity I had and now I will never have any again?
You have thought these things. Admit it. I’m not the only one with these fears.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Forcing creativity
So what do we do? At some point we often resort to forcing it. We are determined to regain our creative highs, so we try to make our self create.
How does that work for you? Probably as poorly as it does for me. Sure, we can do some good work, even very good work. But we can’t kid ourselves that it is up to the level of our best.
Whatever it is in us that generates creativity operates on its own schedule. It is not sympathetic with our wishes. We can be welcoming and encouraging to it, but it does not operate at our command.
Do something
Now I will seem to contradict what I just said, but I do not believe it is a conflict. We will get through a creative valley easier and probably faster if we work through it. I used the idea of “emptying the tank” of our creativity. I believe practicing our craft and following our curiosity are very good behaviors to help refill it.
You may not be inspired with amazing new creative ideas, but go out and see what you can find. Explore. Do not expect to do your best portfolio work. Taking that pressure off will help you relax and lean into it. But doing something is better than sitting around moping.
It is a wonderful time to learn new skills, take some courses or watch some videos. Pick out some new technique you have been curious about and learn it. Practicing it now without all those creative bursts getting in the way is a good time to learn. It is a great time to explore some of those dark, scary corners of Photoshop that have intimidated you for a long time.
Like most of life, doing something is better than doing nothing. Don’t sit feeling sorry for yourself, thinking you are useless and have no more creativity. Fill. your time with learning, exploring, practicing, experimenting, even catching up with cataloging your images. And always follow your curiosity.
The word “create” is a verb. Be active. Go make things. Make dinner, make a drawing, make a fire, make some noise, but make. If all your attempts at being creative consist of passively consuming, no matter how brilliant what you consume is, you’ll always be a consumer, not a creator.
Scott Berkun, in The Myths of Innovation
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Relax
When creativity seems to slip away, when the muse no longer is with us, relax. It does not mean it is gone forever. Like waves, there are highs and lows. It will come back.
Even when we are not feeling inspired, we can keep on working and learning. Do not be passive and waste your time. Be preparing for the rush of creativity when it comes.
We are not a failure when it seems we cannot create astounding new things on command. We are recharging. Accept it. Go do your work anyway.
Have you done creative work you are proud of? Then you should be able to do it again when you are ready. Creativity is not a limited resource that is used up. When you are feeling it, pour it out on everything you do.
Let it flow
Being in a flow state is a great feeling. But it is not exclusive to feeling creative. Anytime you are immersed in applying your skill to a difficult and challenging problem you can be in flow.
Flow and creativity, then, are not synonymous. We can do great work even when we are not riding the crest of creativity. Don’t stop working.
Curiosity is the thing that pulls us along through life and through our art. It does not come and go like creativity. In that way, it is more powerful than creativity.
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. – Dorothy Parker
I like that idea that there is no cure for curiosity. I don’t want to be cured of it.
We can develop our curiosity by asking questions and wondering about things. Give yourself permission to follow your questions. Find the answers. Try things. See what happens. This healthy attitude will carry us through the ups and downs. Creativity may come and go, but our curiosity goes on and gets stronger.
So, even if you feel that your creativity has evaporated, trust that it will return again, just like it has in the past. While you are waiting, keep photographing, learn, practice, experiment, and especially, feed your curiosity. You might find that the extra kick of creativity is actually just an incremental boost to the power of your curiosity.
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. – Emile Zola
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Staying creative
So, as far as staying creative. You won’t always be at your peak. Sometimes you may feel way down in the valley. Don’t panic. It will come back. In the meantime, there are things you can do to improve yourself as an artist and a person and to entice the creativity back. Work on your curiosity. Explore new ideas and techniques. When you feel the creativity flowing again, you will be even more ready to use it.
But no matter what, keep working.
Today’s image
Sunset downtown. I turned my view down to the parking lot instead of out at the glowing buildings. Is this creative? Or is it just following my curiosity? I don’t know. I will leave that for greater minds to decide. Either way, I was letting it flow.
January 29, 2025