Inspire in 300 – Jacob F. Lucas

Inspire in 300 is a guest blog series where creative photographers share who and/or what inspires their photography, and in at least 300 words.

When I think about photography, I don’t think just about “images of stuff”. Sure, that’s the basic concept… but what is it really? The answer is entirely subjective and differs for all of us. For me, photography gives me the creative outlet I need to tell my story; to offer a perspective on our incredible world that is entirely my own.

I don’t consider myself a gifted writer. That is to say, I’ll never win a Pulitzer or publish an award-winning novel. But I do still yearn to show others how I see the world. Through photography, I am able to say what my words cannot. In a split second (or in some cases, many many seconds) I can convey exactly what would take an author paragraphs.

© Jacob F. Lucas

I think that for most photographers out there (myself included) we shoot photographs because we just love to do so. We are all of us visual people who find joy photographing the colours in a rainbow or the gritty back alleys. We find happiness in delivering a message not via printed media but through a combination of pixels on screen or through film – we use an image to tell our story… not printed word.

For me, I use images from my mind’s eye – be they from past memories or something I’ve conjured up – as well as my own life experiences as a source of inspiration. It’s these images, entirely my own, that I use to chase down a vision of a perspective; to chase down how I want to portray a part of our world. The thing is though – it doesn’t stop there. The narrative, the story, the words; they’re all just as important as the image. One leads the other and they play off one another to form the complete story.

© Jacob F. Lucas

I’m motivated by travelling the world. I’m motivated by the chance that I’ll get to take a moment in time that made me say, “Wow!” in the hope that I can make others feel the same. I’m motivated by the fact that images can call people to action because of a simple feeling evoked by a photograph.

My name is Jacob F. Lucas, and this is my story.