More Than a Rock, 2nd Edition

Forget Vision27

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Rumor is that photographer Jay Maisel, when asked for advice about how to make more interesting photographs, responded, “Become a more interesting person.” It is the kind of one-liner retort we all wish we could come up with on the spot, but Maisel actually touches on something deeper. It seems self-evident that interesting artists make interesting art; but there are two related and more important propositions implied here: that one can willfully become a different person, and that one can control the kind of person they become.

I’ve read several accounts by artists proclaiming they ...