Is fulfillment enough in photography?
I went pretty deep down the rabbit hole thinking about this.
Street photography is meditative for me. When I’m walking around, I’m either thinking about a photograph I want to take or I’m thinking about life in general.
And this thought came to me:
The goal is to be fulfilled.
At least I think that’s one of the goals in life.
But then I started wondering, what happens when you actually become fulfilled with your photography?
What’s next?
For me, fulfillment almost feels like reaching the mountaintop. You’ve spent all this time trying to get somewhere, and then one day you look around and realize you’re there.
But where do you go after you’ve reached the mountaintop?
Everything else seems like it would have to be downhill.
I’m definitely not saying I’ve reached the peak of my photography. I haven’t. I’m still learning.
But I think that might actually be the point.
Maybe we have to reach a place with our photography where we’re fulfilled by what we’re doing, but we’re also in a constant state of learning.
Maybe that’s how you keep yourself from becoming stagnant.
You don’t need to be dissatisfied with your work. You don’t need to constantly think your photography isn’t good enough.
You can actually feel good about it.
You can be proud of what you’re making.
But at the same time, you don’t want to feel like you’ve figured everything out.
That’s where I am right now.
I feel good about my photography almost every day that I go out.
I feel fulfilled by the work.
But I don’t feel like I’ve reached the peak.
I still have so much to learn about the process. I have so much to learn about my environment. I have so much to learn about the photographs I’m taking.
There’s always something else to see.
Something else to photograph.
Something else to understand.
And honestly, I hope I can stay in this current state forever.
I think this might be the sweet spot.
Never completely fulfilled.
Just fulfilled enough that you feel good about what you’re doing and good about your life, but never so fulfilled that you believe there’s no more progress to be made.
Maybe fulfillment isn’t the mountaintop after all.
Maybe the goal is to keep climbing.