The quest for creativity
It’s about looking at the world and making unexpected connections…
Erik Johansson
Where does creativity come from?
In his well-known TED talk on education and creativity, Sir Ken Robinson proclaimed that “we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it”. Indeed, science reveals that children are highly creative, but often lose this ability over time. Is Robinson right? Are we educated out of creativity?
Swedish-born surrealist photographer, Erik Johansson believes his creativity has always been there. “To keep creativity, we have to try to remain playful and curious … It’s about looking at the world and making unexpected connections … about creating by combining things,” he says. For him, it’s a matter of quite radical self-responsibility. “It’s not so much about the environment you’re in, it’s about what you do with that environment,” Johansson says. These sentiments are backed up by creative consultant and author James Clear, who states that creativity is “new connections between old ideas … taking what’s already there and combining it in new ways”.
Munich-based Tom Hegen is a graphic designer and photographer passionate about aerial photography. He draws inspiration from considering his audience and knowing what he wants to trigger in them. “I want to tell stories of the relationship between man and nature by using abstraction as language to inspire people,” he says. He hopes this actively involves his audience, leading them to explore hidden information in his imagery. He’s intrigued by people not knowing what they are looking at, having to decode the image. Creativity is everywhere; people “act as designers to shape our environments … I try to find creativity by reading between the lines,” he says. To Hegen, the
