Production Photo from Scissor Birds Portfolio Shot

The world of psychology was knocked upside down when, in 1979, Andy Meltzoff, tried something that had never been done: he stuck his tongue out at a 42 minute old baby. The baby, being a newborn, had no idea what a tongue was but somehow, through some deep inherited characteristic, she stuck her tongue out at Meltzoff in reply. (And where was it that I heard that newborn babies cannot see much?). According to developmental molecular biologist John Medina, in his book, “Brain Rules,” curiosity is one of the 12 principles he believes are necessary for surviving and thriving. Exploration is how how we learn to be creative. We do it by mimicking and testing the world around us. Monkey see, monkey do. And we do it literally from birth.

Little kids constantly test objects and boundaries to see what happens. Drop a cup of milk, throw a rock at a window, walk into a mud puddle when we’re told not to. It’s the way we learn. As we mature, we continue this process by taking on challenges, even risking life and limb, just to see what we can do or what will happen. In this particular case, it just comes down to soap and scissors.

During the early process of creating a portfolio of new work, I bought ten pounds of soap from Lush and some translucent Chinese takeout boxes, but this concept became something else when a half dozen hand-made scissors I bought the same day came into play. The soap was simply going to be an arrangement of pretty colors in the boxes but it didn’t work out and, in the end, we dropped the boxes. The images were not anything worth writing home about. Pedestrian at best.

Lush Soap arrangement

During the shoot, my 18 year old daughter, who assists me when home from college, had thrown the scissors into the takeout containers and held them in front of the light table we were working on. We both thought that scissors as birds was the right concept but a nest didn’t appear until she brought the box to the light table. Like John Medina’s two year son (see the John Medina blog link above), my 18 year old daughter delighted in her find, as did I. The shot came together quickly with a loose piece of twine I pulled from a drawer and frayed the edges of a bit. The end result was a remarkable, clever image that we had not planned on. Like music, two minds, working in concert – one song.

Scissorbirds

It’s no wonder, when we add art directors, stylists, retouchers, and editors to the creative mix our work becomes more than sum of its parts.

Creativity is an exploration that happens within us. Creativity shared is exponentially more rewarding and exciting.