For Brooke Didonato, a fine art photographer based in NYC, the camera is just a tool. It’s what you do with it that matters most.

Early in her career, she struggled to figure out what exactly she wanted to convey with her photographs at first. It was difficult to find an artistic voice because as people, we are constantly changing and growing as individuals. For her, as we grow older, the stories and the subjects of our photography change.

She even had a phase about a year ago when she wasn’t sharing any new work because she had convinced herself that none of it was good enough. She was bypassing criticism and failure, which was not conducive to her growth. But after a year of hiding under her own shadows, she realized that failure is what helped her in creating powerful images.

“Failure is such an important part of photography and I can’t be afraid of it.” -Brooke Didonato

She gets most of her ideas from the people she’s met, dreams, conversations, stories and music. She used to think that good ideas would just come naturally with time. She knows inspiration is everywhere but it’s impossible to predict when it will actually reach you. You have to seek it out sometimes. You have to find it. For there are times you have to go out and find what you want for yourself.