Darkrooms Uncovered - Donn Dobkin

A peek into a photographer's mental creative darkroom

What does your creative ritual look like? Do you have specific habits or conditions that spark your creativity?

The biggest habit is the “10 Ideas” habit. Each day I try to think of 10 things to do, or improve, or make. The concept was introduced to me by James Altucher’s _Skip the Line_ book. The idea is just to build creative muscles, not necessarily to create 10 perfect ideas or solve problems. But whenever there is a new challenge in front of me, I try to come up with 10 or more ways to shoot the next subject, or 10 shots that would help fill out my book, etc.

When you're feeling creatively blocked, what's your go-to method for breaking through?

That routine helps enormously for that. I also like to look at artwork and photography from other people for ideas. Perhaps I'll riff off something that another great artist did, or else it will spark a completely different idea.

Describe a moment when your creative perspective shifted dramatically. What triggered it?

I feel that things have ev…