For decades, we’ve been told that creative people are right-brain thinkers, establishing a “have and have not” dichotomy – either you’re an innovative creative or you’re a left-brain thinker, analytical and logical. That has been proven wrong. It turns out that creativity is a right-brain ability when a person is inexperienced or dealing with an unfamiliar situation. With experience, creativity draws on learning and left-brain thinking. Creativity becomes more unconscious and autonomous, more predictable, following patterns that have been learned. That is perhaps why moving into new territory – stills to moving images, colour to black and white, portrait to food, for example – can trigger a new creative vigour. It may also explain the sometimes-wild ideas of emerging photographers versus the more finessed work that mature photographers produce.
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