Albert Einstein once said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun” and it’s one of my all time favourite quotes. Creativity is the beautiful process of putting your imaginative ideas into reality. Whilst growing up I struggled with the concept of creativity, and what it meant. I couldn’t understand why all I wanted to do was spend all of my time in the art room at school, surrounded by paint, all sorts of materials and always with my camera close by. In the Academic world creativity often seems to get forgotten. I know from choosing my GCSE’s and A-levels that what was seen to be an academic subject such as Maths and English language was considered more to be valuable than the arts. I have never been exceptional when it comes to exam results and have always fallen in the average category, and my friends gained the A’s and the A*’s. I couldn’t understand why that wasn’t me, I tried just as hard in lessons and got on really well with all my teachers so why wasn’t I gaining the high grades?

It took one enthusiastic art teacher to make me realise why; I was encouraged to attend an art class after school. It just so happened that the class was doing Life drawing. I was terrified - I had never drawn a person properly in my life, I thought, as he handed me a pencil and some watercolours. However as soon as I started to draw, I was taken over with excitement and joy, I didn’t want to leave. He sat with me as I drew and at the end he said, “that wasn’t as bad as you thought was it? That’s a piece of art, make sure you keep that”. From this one experience I knew what creativity was, I knew that it was who I was. Creativity is different within everyone, its what you want it to be, whether it’s in photography, or any form of art. It’s so important that all creative people out there hold on to that spark of creativity inside and let it take over; allow it to give you the confidence to explore your dreams and ambitions.

Being an Apprentice at Aspire I am lucky enough to be surrounded by creative people and inspiration comes from everywhere. Look at your surroundings and what you can work with; in my own photography it is the people around me and the beauty of the Lake District that drives me. I love to capture the world from my eyes, and the way I view things. Showing emotion through my work is very important to me; as Bruno Barbey once said “Photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world”. I am constantly carrying a sketchbook around with me, jotting down ideas and drawing different things that catch my eye, or sticking in an image that has excited and motivated me. This is a great way to keep your creativity flowing and to keep all of your creative ideas in one place so you can refer to it again and again. Call it “the book of you”.

One of my inspirations is Phillip Lee Harvey, who has won many awards, but recently won Best Travel Photographer 2014. Through his images he captivates and engages, his portraits are unique and capture different places and lifestyles of many countries. The photographs are not just images, they tell a story. Photography to me is a form of Art, to illustrate the beauties and wonders of life itself and telling a story. Aspire has taught me to be myself, and that being a creative is a gift. My aspirations have grown since joining the Aspire team, and my knowledge has expanded with both photography and business skills. I hope to continue working with Aspire whilst doing a degree in fashion design in September.

By April Howie