"What is creativity? Who is creative? What is art? What is a photograph? Who is an artist?"
All these questions are part of a circular, infinite and nebulous discussion, that, at some point has affected any person that you yourself think of as a 'creative'.
From a personal standpoint, I have asked the above questions and stood in awe at the creativity of certain 'artists'.
On many occasions, people look at my work and say things to me like "I wish I was that creative" or "I haven't got a creative bone in my body - can't draw, can't photograph, can't write".
My day job is a General Practitioner at a busy medical centre. I often tell people I have two halves of my brain, the left half ('Lefty') gets up at 7am, puts on a shirt and trousers, grabs a coffee, and kisses the right half of my brain ('Righty') goodbye as it lazily snoozes in the morning sunshine. The Lefty goes to work to listen to patients concerns, ideas and expectations, treats ailments and even performs minor surgical procedures whilst Righty snoozes through until about 10pm. Night has fallen. Like passing ships in the night, as Lefty is ready for bed after a hard days work, Righty springs into action, almost like a dog on heat with verbal diarrhoea, the flamboyant collection of neurons erupts with an onslaught of concepts, ideas and plans for the next creative venture.
An image from a digital personal series - 'Manflu' - life at the sharp end of the needle.
The hemispherical brain dominance theory is actually a myth, but for me helps explain how I can spend time in a 'scientific state' then transcend into a 'creative state'. Probably one of the reasons I chose General Practice as a profession (or it may have chosen me), was because it allows you to think outside of the box, get creative, and not follow strict protocols that other medical professionals such as surgeons and anesthetists are often bound by.
“Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it’s produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.”
Righty is actually an integral part of my sanity, and not only allows me to find a personal life/work balance, but also is a positive thing for patient care and relationships. This may explain why many doctors can be found to have creative outlets, I know quite a few orthopaedic surgeons (bone doctors) who are excellent wood workers (although if you see the instruments used in Orthopaedic surgery, you might think they are one in the same thing!).
In fact, creativity is the backbone of modern medicine/science/technology, without creative doctors, we wouldn't have modern medicines, without creative scientists, we would not have the international space program, without creative technologists - you wouldn't be sitting at your computer reading this right now.