How to Handle Creative Jealousy as a Photographer or Videographer

Be honest. When was the last time you saw someone's followers count on Instagram and got jealous? Or maybe you felt they didn't deserve that nice camera because their work was subpar in your eyes. Jealousy is a poisonous and yet far too common emotion among creatives, and this great video essay gets really honest about why we feel it and how to handle it.

Coming to you from Sean Tucker, this video examines an emotion I'm sure all of us have felt from time to time. It's very easy (particularly in a field that marries creativity with one's financial success) to fall into the trap of comparison with your peers, but that's almost always a fool's errand. As Tucker breaks down, it's not unusual to feel those things, but it's important that we become introspective and figure out what's really causing those emotions, because the majority of the time, the only real race is with yourself. I know personally that my creative voice only became solid when I stopped trying to outdo what others were doing and started focusing on becoming the best version of who I actually am. It's an interesting topic and one that definitely deserves some thought.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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9 Comments

Thanks this was useful, and not just to artists.

Sean is pretty remarkably insightful.

This reminds me of the movie Amadeus.

I laugh just like Mozart in that movie, much to the delight and annoyance of my friends.

Haha...He was a genius ......still listen to his music with considerable admiration.

Beautiful. Vital. And yes, its for everyone. I forwarded it to my children who work in various fields.

loved it. I still go through IG and look at shots and get mad about why i couldn't find a cool location or why couldn't i get that shot or meet that person or be at that function, BUT, if the shot is killer i always leave a compliment . If you think about it what good is it to get mad or Jelled , you leave a good word for the person and it always comes back to you ten fold, and im not saying to do it for that reason, the jealousy dosent do anyone any good , it just makes everything toxic . When i see a killer shot I always try to make my next shot just as killer , it i always want to improve and learn something new to make my work better, so i will try to figure out what they did to get that killer shot even if i have to ask them, I always answer peoples questions about my work and my style I never hold out ( well some times i do if the location is a private spot and i cant give out the info) because when i do then the person helps me out when they do something. Jealousy sucks , treat people the way you want to be treated. Or maybe i just talk to much but i really liked this vid.

I'm jealous of the photos on his wall! :-)

Creative Jealousy. Great name for a band...