The Creative Process with Sean Kernan

I am fascinated by the entire creative process. I think it has enormous amounts to teach us in photography, science, or just in life. I like to try out creativity exercises on different groups of people whenever I can, just to see what is revealed. So when I visited the children at L.E.A.D. Uganda a few weeks ago I saw just this type of opportunity. But I wasn’t prepared for the way they took the games and ran with them.

I have to say, these kids got to the point much faster than I might have. Here they are, having created an imaginary bus in all its detail and taking a riotous trip on it to the north of Uganda, where many of them come from. The point is that the same imaginative and creative possibilities exist in all of us, at any stage in our lives.


Interestingly, the exercises we did were many of the same I will be doing with my upcoming class in Santa Fe, and the underlying purpose is similar ... to re-awaken the creative impulse. We’ll be using the assignments and exercises to carry us deeper into photography, and I know that what is interesting is not where folks in that class will be different than these kids, but where they are the same. I can’t wait to see.


Learn more from Sean in his workshop
Creativity and the Photographer
with Sean Kernan
March 13 - March 19, 2011




Visit his web site www.seankernan.com to see what he's up to.


L.E.A.D. Uganda is a group home for orphans, children from the streets, child laborers, and former child soldiers that was started by photographer Stephen Shames in Kampala. You’ll find great information about L.E.A.D. Uganda here: www.leaduganda.org