Inspiration from different places...

I'm not really a fan of rap music, but I do listen to some on occasion and I recently found a Jay Z song that has actually been some inspiration to me. The song is the last track on the "Black Album" and it's entitled "my 1st song". It begins with a clip from an interview by the Notorious B.I.G. where he is quoted as saying:

I'm just, tryin to stay above water y'know
Just stay busy, stay workin
Puff told me like, the key to this joint
The key to staying, on top of things
is treat everything like it's your first project, knahmsayin?
Like it's your first day like back when you was an intern
Like, that's how you try to treat things like, just stay hungry.

The chorus of the song is sung by Jay Z and it reads:

It's my life - it's my pain and my struggle
The song that I sing to you it's my ev-ery-thing
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as - when I came
It's my joy and my tears and the laughter it brings to me
It's my ev-ery-thing.

(song lyrics copied from lyrics.com)

To be honest, the lyrics lose some of their effect when they are only read and not heard. The point is though, that every song (or for a photographer, every assignment) should be treated like it's the most important, like it's the first one. Even more than that, it's a reminder to keep up a good work ethic, and to push yourself everyday. Regardless of my opinion of the majority of Jay Z's music (and the genre in general), this song has been on alot of playlists on my iPod lately. I have let myself get into a rut in regards to my shooting; I just don't find the time to do as much personal work as I should. I am also getting a little to used to shooting 'grip and grins' for the university and I feel like I am getting complacent. Maybe this week will be the week when I break out of this rut, and when I can reminde myself to treat every assignment as if it were the first time I picked up a camera and had so much enthusiasm and saw the whole world through a new perspective.

The other point this song brings up is to remind me to ask myself this question: Am I hungry enough? Am I hungry enough for these jobs I am looking at, for the process of storytelling? How badly do I want to do this for a living? If at any point the answer is "not enough" then I think I will have to reevaluate where I am. Right now, I am hungry. A professor was suggesting to our class the other day that an interviewer was likely to ask the question, "Why should I hire you?...." and that we should have an answer ready. I think my answer will be that I am hungry. Hungry for this job, but also hungry to get to know a new community and tell the stories I find there. That I desire so much to work as a photojournalist on a daily basis, and to find a way to impact people's lives through my photography.