Hi friends,
Greetings from Chicago!
Today’s edition is a bit long, so feel free to save it for reading later by visiting visualwisdom.substack.com
Here’s a snapshot of everything in store for this edition:
The Idea of the week: The Helsinki Bus Station Theory.
Tweet of the week: People → Brands & Brands → People
Book of the week: Turn the Ship Around by L. David Marquet
Quote of the week from James Clear.
1. Idea of the week: The Helsinki Bus Station Theory.
In 2004, A Finnish-American photographer called Arno Minkkinen stepped on the stage to deliver a commencement speech at the New England School of Photography. In this now-famous speech, he outlined the key to success in the creative field. He called this the Helsinki Bus Station Theory.
He starts by describing a large bus station that stood in the center of his hometown Helsinki, Finland.
“Some two-dozen platforms are laid out in a square at the heart of the city. At the head of each platform is a sign posting the numbers of the buses that leave from that particular platform. The bus numbers might read as follows: 21, 71, 58, 33, and 19. Each bus takes the same route out of the city for a least a kilometer stopping at bus stop intervals along the way where the same numbers are again repeated: 21, 71, 58, 33, and 19.”
“Now let’s say, again metaphorically speaking, that each bus stop represents one year in the life of a photographer, meaning the third bus stop would represent three years of photographic activity. Ok, so you have been working for three years making platinum studies of nudes. Call it bus #21.”
He continued, “You take those three years of work on the nude to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the curator asks if you are familiar with the nudes of Irving Penn. His bus, 71, was on the same line. Or you take them to a gallery in Paris and are reminded to check out Bill Brandt, bus 58, and so on. Shocked, you realize that what you have been doing for three years others have already done.”
“So you hop off the bus, grab a cab (because life is short) and head straight back to the bus station looking for another platform. This time you are going to make 8×10 view camera color snapshots of people lying on the beach from a cherry picker crane.”
“You spend three years at it and three grand and produce a series of works that elicit the same comment: haven’t you seen the work of Richard Misrach? Or, if they are steamy black and white 8×10 camera view of palm trees swaying off a beachfront, haven’t you seen the work of Sally Mann?”
“So once again, you get off the bus, grab the cab, race back and find a new platform. This goes on all your creative life, always showing new work, always being compared to others.”
Stay on the Bus
He looked at the crowd of students and asked the question that was evident on their anxious faces, “What to do?”
He said “It’s simple. Stay on the bus. Stay on the f*cking bus. Why, because if you do, in time you will begin to see a difference.”
“The buses that move out of Helsinki stay on the same line but only for a while, maybe a kilometer or two. Then they begin to separate, each number heading off to its own unique destination. Bus 33 suddenly goes north, bus 19 southwest. For a time maybe 21 and 71 dovetail one another but soon they split off as well, Irving Penn is headed elsewhere.”
“It’s the separation that makes all the difference, and once you start to see that difference in your work from the work you so admire, it’s time to look for your breakthrough. Suddenly your work starts to get noticed. Now you are working more on your own, making more of the difference between your work and what influenced it. Your vision takes off.”
“At the end of the line—where the bus comes to rest and the driver can get out for a smoke or better yet a cup of coffee—that’s when the work is done. It could be the end of your career as an artist or the end of your life for that matter, but your total output is now all there before you, the early (so-called) imitations, the breakthroughs, the peaks and valleys, the closing masterpieces, all with the stamp of your unique vision.”
He paused and said, “Why, because you stayed on the bus.”
Key Takeaways
Stay on the bus. At the beginning of your creative career, you may start by imitating the work of others. As you keep working and re-working on your craft, you will find your unique voice.
Your breakthrough does not happen in a day through a “viral” blog post or a tweet. It happens incrementally as your body of work slowly piles up and you reach a point where each new work is a shining piece of art that represents your authentic voice.
2. Tweet of the week
3. Book of the Week.
David Marquet is a retired United States Navy captain. He was the commander of the submarine USS Sante Fe. Under his leadership, he turned the submarine from the worst in the fleet to being the most successful by using a leader-leader model of leadership.
His book “Turn the Ship Around” has been recommended as a must-read in the leadership category by many of my friends. The book is both a personal account of his experience on Santa Fe and a guide for anyone who wants to build an empowered and effective workforce.
4. Quote of the Week
James Clear is the NYT bestselling author of Atomic Habits that has sold over 1 million copies. But, how many of you know what James Clear did before he started his blog Jamesclear.com
Before 2012, James Clear was writing about personal finance and passive income on his website Passive Panda. It’s a lesson for anyone who is struggling with the idea of finding “your” niche. Your niche is not something that is set in stone. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. His success today is the result of his relentless pursuit to try different things until something came easily to him.
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