Creativity - Does Inhaling Help?

[stuart_richardson]

I am not a smoker, though I have done it in the past. I don't think it really effects the way

people's output other than in the social sense. I.E. if you are with a bunch of stoners and

you join them, chances are you will get more natural pictures if you join them than you

would just stepping back. The other big thing is inhibitions. If you are uptight by nature,

chances are you are going to be much looser when high or drunk (unless you get

paranoid), and by increasing your likelihood to take shots without worrying about the

consequences, you increase the chance that your shots will be good. But it also depends

on

what type of photography you are going for. I would imagine that if you are doing

something more technical like landscape photography, still life or formal portraiture,

being high or drunk would hurt your output by making it more difficult to think critically,

remember to pull out the darkslide etc etc. As for the overarching question of legality,

while I don't partake at all anymore (I hardly drink), I can see no reason why pot is not

legal in the states. I am not pretending it is good for you, just that it is no worse than

alcohol or cigarettes, and by regulating and taxing it, it would be both safer and highly

profitable. That's just my take anyway.

[ben conover]

Stuart, do you really think that in a society of whom 80% believe in 'God' you have a chance of rational thought?

[ben conover]

Meryl, very well said. There is always a photo if you can find it.

[al_kaplan1]

Let me say this. I was never a "Stoned Out Head", just a social toker, and enjoyed a toke or two before going to sleep. Except for shoots where the subjects/clients were smoking I wasn't likely to toking alone. I've never liked drinking and only got drunk a few times in my life. As I look through my older stuff from the sixties and seventies I know that some of it was shot while stoned, some not. What struck me as I waded through those hundreds of contact sheets (and more yet to look at) with a loupe was that I couldn't see a significant difference between stoned and not stoned. Other than clothing and automobiles I really couldn't see much difference overall in my photographs between then and now either. My favored "normal" back then was a 35, and I did a lot of my shooting starting in 1967 with a 19 Canon on my Leicas. Now I use a 15 Heliar.

[robert_m_johnson]

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[jake_tauber]

Oooooh! Wowww! Where'd all the color go? Dude,it's the Leica forum.

[michael s.]

Bob J's photo (very good one) has <a href=http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/DONTBOGA.HTM>accompanying lyrics</a>, I think.

[bill_schneider1]

I think that there was some research back in the 70's that suggested that creativity wasn't really affected by pot, but that the perception or feeling of creativity was enhanced for the user. Once sobriety hit, the actual creative results were no better.

 

Knowing that, I'd be better off passing out pot to attendees at my next show instead of trying to enhance my own creativity through pharmacology. When stoned, they'd think I'm a creative genius, and maybe I'd finally sell some prints.<div></div>

[erin.e]

to be a 'good' photographer one must have an analytical mind as well as a good eye. The analytical mind makes sure that you have taken care of all the incidentals prior to getting the pic, e.g. made sure there is film in the camera, that the asa is on the right setting for the film, checked that the camera is functional before loading the film, etc etc.

 

Dope affects your short term memory causing people to momentarily forget things.

 

 

At one paper where I worked a photographer got stoned on some good head grass one lunch time and arrived back a little late to find a panicky journalist waiting to rush him off to a job that was booked in, off they raced to the place several miles out of town.

About half an hour later he came running back into the photographers Den, red faced, and picked up the FULL CAMERA KIT that he had left behind!

Of course he had used the old excuse with the journalist

"Oops, technical problems, stall things here a bit ; I'll be back soon"

 

Does imbibing in dope increase your creativity in photography? Only in introducing more variable chances of a ballsup, as far as I am concerned.

[dennis_couvillion]

Uhhhh..... what were we talking about?

[Jim_Tardio]

Can't say that it helped my photography, but the sex was great.

[al_kaplan1]

Dennis, we're getting together a bunch of guys to travel to the Netherlands and photograph THEIR levee system. We want to find out if easy access to legal pot allows them to design and build better levees than the ones we had around New Orleans before the hurricanes breeched them. ;-)

[ray .]

<i>"Dad, I just realized why the sixties and seventies produced

so much great creative new music!" I asked him what he thought

the reason was. "They were all smoking pot, doing other stuff

too. They were all STONED!" Being a good concerned parent I

gave him the Official Lecture on Why Drugs Are Bad before

agreeing with him that yes, it no doubt had a lot to do with it.

</i><p>I don't think there's any reliable evidence of that, even

though creative people have used drugs. I don't see drugs as

being a central issue in the creativity of major players like Dylan,

Lennon and McCartney, or Mick. Hendrix and Morrison were

probably more influenced by it, but they burned out. As much as

anything, serious drug taking is a demon that artists have had to

manage or get past in order to survive creatively.

[icuneko]

How about this: Guns don't kill people, (some) people do. Drugs don't

foster creativity, (some) people do. And ... gasp!... Leicas don't make great photos, (some) photographers do.

[Brad_]

<I>"Yes I did inhale!" I'll even admit to snorting a few lines. ... I'm not sure that it had any

effect on my ability to shoot. </I><P>

 

Probably not the <a href="http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/the-ads/default.aspx?

id=launchfist">effect</a> you were looking for.

[cosina_snap]

.vino with a good meal is best

[jerry_pfile3]

"Bless me Father for I have.......well, never inhaled at least".

 

However, when I sprang for a new M7 last year my Wife was certain I must have been on something.

 

Jerry

[greg lockrey]

My M4 was and is my "high" ;-)

[fjords]

you can dance with mary-jane 'n go home, can't be said for some other sirenz.

[krimple]

What a great thread!

 

I guess my whole thing about drugs and alcohol was shaped by living with an alcoholic for my teenage years. I also played in a heavy metal band (used to have that hair..) at that time, and played in lots of divy bars in my hometown, so I saw a lot of down-and-out types and what drinking could do to them.

 

So I never really got into drugs or drinking much (well, drinking but I think I got drunk about 5 times). Add to that a sensitive stomach, and well, I'm a tea totaller.

 

Funny story: I had roomed with a few guys in college, where you end up dealing with people much unlike yourself. We had a townhouse outside of campus, and one of my roomates, Bob, smoked a LOT of pot and drank a LOT. I was a pretty serious musician at the time, and he used to play guitar, so the inevitable discussions about altered states and how much better he played occurred. The thing was, I was NOT stoned, so I heard how bad he was.

 

I tried to convince him that the altered state didn't really do much for his playing, and if anything kept him from hearing the beat and staying in tune/on time. He then went up to continue working, stoned, on his architecture projects.

 

Yes, the man was an architecture major. He worked on his projects WHILE HIGH. I vowed that, if I ever rode a suspension bridge I would pull over and read the sign to see if he had anything to do with it. That goes for skywalks and just about anything else he could have built.

 

That was an absolutely hilarious time of my life! Thanks for this thread--it's a lot of fun to read, Al!!!

 

Ken

[dennis_couvillion]

Al: I don't know... the way our levees dissolved underneath the water perhaps they were constructed out of pot... or maybe hash. ;>)

 

This is a true story I've been sharing with people: Right before Christmas a local New Orleans radio talk show host opened up the phone lines for callers to express what was at the top of their Christmas wish lists for New Orleans. After a number of predictable responses, such as "stronger levees", "better politicians", "rebuilding their demolished homes", etc., one guy called in and said, "Man, all I want is to sit on my front porch again and smoke a joint." The host cracked up... as I did too.

 

Dennis

[zave_shapiro]

Ten/fifteen years ago Musician magazine ran a major article on this question and music. As you'd expect they also asked about hallucinogenics and psychedelics ...

 

The consensus was that getting a good buzz going and fooling around might get you a cool lick or a serendipitous phrase. And it was "worth it" for that. On the other hand technical issues are best solved sober. I was struck by the answer`here that it had led to some darkroom experiments.

 

"Stairs, man. They're cool." "Sure." "No, I mean, like they're cool man. They're going but not going." "Sure." "Carpenters hate'em, but we keep on building them. Do they have some powers?" "Sure." Well, I know my project for the next few months.

[gib]

I remember being on stage in a comedy in university and for one show having had more than a few beers in the afternoon. My timing was way off, and so I never pulled that stunt again.

 

I recall a writer who I admired talking on a panel on CSPAN BookTV talking about how he had figured out how to drink just enough to get drunk just the right amount so that he could write for about 25 minutes. Then he was too drunk. I was surprised a little. Partly because it must take a lot of days to write novels when you can only get fired up for 25 minutes. Also that the amount of anxiety or whatever that was getting in his way of creating seemed pretty substantial. Like maybe he ought cut bait and try another line of work. Alcohol and writers have a long connection. Part of it seems to be the necessary solitary isolation required to put words together.

 

Photography seems to me to be at another end of the spectrum in terms of isolation. You are reaching out and connecting not doing an internal brain wandering soul refining wrestling death match.

 

Trying to get into a relaxed but alert state of mind seems like the ideal target. The question is if drugs or alcohol get you there or make you think you got there and if instead all you do is imbibe, pull out the Leica and fire away having left the lens cap on. A state of imagined competence kind of getting in the way.

 

I kind of think it's better to see the world without a chemical filter in my brain. I think that it's better generally and better when I am trying to make something with a camera or with words. But everybody has to find their own way.

[squareframe]

<br>getting stoned certainly helped my creative photography.

<br>it also prevented me from remembering where I put my cameras.

[zapata_espinoza]

What exactly is 'creativity'? Creative urge? A need to post a question, regardless whether meaningful or not?