We love learning from some of our favourite creatives and inspiring people. That’s why we love renowned photographer Mikkel Vang’s limited edition title, Got What It Takes To Be A Photographer? where he shares his top ten tips on taking your images to the next level. Discover more about Mikkel with our Q&A.
What do you love most about your job?
That it is not my job. It’s my passion. I know passion is a very used and misused word these days. But my whole body can get in to this feeling of pure happiness when the light, the scene everything just feels right. It takes a while to get in there, and does not happen every job, but the fact I know it’s there keeps me searching and looking. And it keeps me doing what I’m doing.
It is a bit like an addiction, once you’ve been there, you want to get back, you want to push it as far and for as long time as possible.
Then there is a lot of other stuff as well of course; the good, the boring, the never ending and for some weird reason addiction of travelling constantly, the rainy days, the jet lag, the missed birthdays, but that is all part of the process. It can’t all be early mornings in the mountains and the sun just coming up over the peak the perfect place. Well maybe…I wish.
What’s one question you wish you had asked yourself when you were first starting out in your career?
That I had stopped asking myself questions. Just let the images do the talking. I think it is great to have mentors and people with a lot of experience to help you one your path, and I was lucky to have a few, but as a creative there is never a final answer, the whole trick is to give the images personality. Your personality. And you have to learn that yourself. That’s the beauty of my profession.
Experience is good to have and can work as your foundation, but experience quickly gets old and a bit routineish. Then there is the business side to my profession which you have to keep separate in my mind. Are you a businessman or a photographer ?
It never ends, there is no final answer.
The day you think there is a final answer for your creativity and images it’s time to hang up the camera, because that’s when the passion is gone. You gotta stay curious. I still often wonder what I have gotten myself into this time.
How do you find work/life balance?
Still searching. I don’t think there is a final solution to that, in my world it is an ever challenging issue. Things come very quickly sometimes and a lot of things gets moved around. But some jobs come in, and I just can’t help it. I have to do it.
What’s the one stationery item you can’t live without?
Stapler. Hands off my stapler!
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