How Multipotentiality Can Actually Help You as a Photographer and Traveler

There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about photography. In one way or another, this wonderful medium of creative expression crosses my mind and fills it with thoughts of inspiration, lightheartedness and curiosity.  It poses questions, it challenges me to dig deep and pushes me to explore the work of others. No matter how busy my life may be at the moment, photography is always there, by my side, ready to make itself available at any moment.

As the first half of the year remains a bit slow for me in terms of travel, I find myself standing at a cross roads of photographic creation. I have always identified as more of a travel shooter. A “travel photographer,” as many may call it. Which, theoretically speaking, would indicate that I photograph most when I’m traveling. So what about when I’m NOT traveling? What should I photograph when life finds me more at home, busy with everyday tasks and mundane responsibilities? Should I even photograph at all? Does my presence at home indicate that my camera takes a back seat and stays covered on a shelf, collecting dust instead of images? How do I find the inspiration to shoot when I am not traveling? 

These questions, albeit still unanswered, bring me to a very important point and one I’ve been wanting to write about for a while. What should we do if we find passion for more than one thing or one discipline in life? For a long time, I had believed that true value lies in mastering that one specialty we are good at: pursuing it to the end, focusing on it entirely and honing in our skills with a great deal of voraciousness, setting aside everything else that doesn’t contribute to it at the moment. But what if there are more than one thing that set our soul on fire?

For example, I have always loved photographing people. It still remains my absolute favorite kind to pursue and I almost always rather be shooting people than any other subject matter. But there are also times when I find myself drawn to landscapes and times when I want to photograph wildlife…There are moments when I immerse myself completely shooting the street scene, just as at the same time my Pinterest account is filling up with black and white editorial photography inspirations. Not to mention that since I started taking dance classes last year, I am completely and utterly drawn to the world of dance and would love to photograph these incredible movements our bodies are capable of performing. 

The biggest question then is, am I allowed to pursue all of these photographic endeavors with equal enthusiasm or should I just focus on photographing people since I’ve always placed that above all others? Should we find one thing we are good at, enjoy doing and focus solely on it or can we GIVE OURSELVES PERMISSION to be and do all that equally fascinates us? This question has plagued me since my early days in medical school when, though I was pursuing a career in medical sciences, my creative mind had begged me to dap into more artistic subject matters as well. And now, long after graduating and still to this day, I keep posing the same question as an established Emergency Medicine physician, asking for permission to be a photographer too…Because surely a doctor can’t be both, can they?

Thankfully, seeking answers to this ongoing dilemma, has brought me to the people who look outside the constricting frames of what is known as “singlepotentiality.” Emilie Wapnick has given a wonderful TED Talk precisely about this subject. She calls people like myself “multipotentialites,” aka those with many interests and creative pursuits at one point or another in their lives. As someone who herself is very familiar with this concept, Emilie speaks of the joys and challenges of pursuing many things in life and her underlying message is simple: most of us don’t simply fit into one model of who we’re supposed to be or what we are supposed to be doing. Furthermore, foregoing our passions for the sake of a single discipline is a disservice not only to our own selves but also everyone else around us. Being a multipotentialite is challenging, but necessary if we want to show up as our whole selves. 

There are also several artists who practice this concept when it comes to photography. Joel Meyerowitz, one of my favorite photographers of all time, has famously said, “Everything is photographable.” If Joel says that everything is photographable, why should I not photograph it? Rick Sammon, another one of my favorites, is known for his saying “My specialty is that I don’t specialize.” He has published numerous books on a variety of photographic subject matter and continues to teach in all arenas of the medium. And lastly, my ultimate inspiration and my guru, the legendary entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck is officially on record emphasizing that “going deep” on one thing only can actually lead to dissatisfaction and unhappiness. A lot of people’s personality traits take them to “taste many flavors” and the false belief that having many interests and pursuits leads to failure is self-deprecating. In addition, everything we dapple in can help the other thing excel as well. It becomes a chain reaction. 

As long as the focus of multipotentiality is happiness, no one should be dictating our lives and our interests for us. 

So unless my life depends on it, I will continue to “taste” different things, keep shooting all the subjects that move my soul and keep dancing if my body asks for it while being kinder to myself in all these endeavors. And I encourage you, a fellow multipotentialite, to do the same.