David Talley is an internationally recognized photographer, director, and producer operating out of Portland, OR. His works exhibit the darkest moment before an explosion of light, a story broken, but changed for the better, and the ability to transform the present problem in to a prospering future. David is the founder and creative director of the world’s largest photographic collaboration event, Concept Collaboration.

To listen to Part 2, click here!

In this episode, David discusses:

-How his personality doesn’t lend well with a normal job where he is told what to do.

-How many people are afraid of making money with their creative talents because they love it so much and don’t want that love to disappear.

-His “single sentence” and how it applies to his creativity as well as his life in general.

-How if you want bad things to turn around, you have to seek out your “explosion of light.”

-How his creativity was nurtured from a very young age.

-An important first experience photographing a sunrise in Hawaii.

-How many potentially creative people are idealistic so they never go out and create that first thing to get the ball rolling.

-How lack of structure as well as lack of deadlines holds many people (including David) back from actually creating work.

-How beginning a 365-day challenge gave him the structure and framework to actually take photographs and strive to get better, which actually began his career.

-How it is impossible not to grow when you do something every single day.

-The moment when he realized that he didn’t have an answer for why he takes photographs and the way he found an answer, which ultimately led to his single sentence.

-One of his worst moments, when all of his camera gear was stolen, and how he was able to look at the situation from above to realize that in six months, everything would be much better.

-The power that comes from being able to step outside of situations and attempting to determine exactly what is going on and how your single sentence fits into it.

Quotes:

“I don’t know if it’s like this for other creative artists, but I have a problem with authority and I don’t want to be told what to do.”

“I was afraid of making money with my creative talents for a really long time.”

“At the end of the day, if you’re not failing in your art and learning, you’re not growing.”

“The sentence itself is the guidepost for everything I do and everything I create in terms of art and in terms of life.”

“I’m just snapping photos and framing these images and I’m just dying inside.  Like this is the best thing ever.  I love this so much.”

“I think the biggest thing that holds creative people back is a lack of structure and lack of a deadline.”

“The first part was take a photo every single day for a year and the second part was try to get better every single day.  With that, I found my calling as a photographer.”

“As creatives, we love the idea of things, and we hate the idea of hard work.  We need to combine the two into one so that we can get stuff done.”

Links mentioned:

“The Single Sentence” by David Talley (David’s ebook!)

Connect with David:

Website / Facebook / Instagram