Our Work is Alive?

StephenHunton
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Sitting on a flight last week, I flipped through the in-flight magazine (because no WiFi) and was struck by a comment the writer made in an article about Rose-Lynn Fisher, an artist who photographs her tears.

“When is a photo finished? … What if it’s finished state comes much later…not upon it’s capture or development, but long after, when it is eventually looked at? Finally seen?”

What a profound and powerful thought. That our work has a life so much longer than when we hit the send button or publish to social channels. It’s life is contingent on the people that will find it and share it.

If this is true then it lives until the last person sees and decides to pass by unwilling to share. This could be within minutes, within hours or so much longer. Take a tweet versus a YouTube video for example. Their lifespans are different, but it is up to the people who find it to decide if that piece of art should live or die.

So, what do we do with this idea? I think a piece of it is realizing that we are the creators of a living and breathing thing. That we will pour energy of some amount into each piece of work we create, but imagine if our perspective shifted to creating such a great piece of art that it could live the longest, fullest life possible. That it wouldn’t just be thrust out into the world and then cast into darkness, ultimately to die a lonely life, because people that came across it weren’t compelled to breathe more life into it with a like/click/share. Instead, we hope it would be found, collected, and shared amongst our customers communities because they decide that the piece of content they found should be seen by others.

This thought gives weight to our work. It can highlight our purpose and empower us towards producing more creative work, because we realize the gravity of our work goes beyond checking a task box, but delivering something into social that has an opportunity to live longer because we made it that much greater.

Simply put, if you make stories, make them worth sharing. Only then will they have a chance to thrive.

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StephenHunton

Written by

SVP @FleishmanHillard | Believer, Husband, Dad, Storyteller, Photog | Fitness, Music, the Hustle. @stevohunton on Instagram and Snapchat.

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