I thought I would start my my blog by posing the question. Do we really need another blog about photography and image making?

I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the wealth of fantastic work produced by my contemporaries and predecessors. It can cause camera shutter paralysis. This sense that there is no point. It has all been done before and done superbly to boot. I go to as many exhibitions as time permits, collect photography books and browse the internet constantly. I do wonder whether I would be better off shutting myself away for a while. Working in splendid isolation with nothing but my own thoughts for company.

In an interview Chris Buck said:

"I believe there are two kinds of photographers. There are those who look at other peoples work and there are those who don't. I'm not one to look at someone else's work. I find it more distracting than helpful. I tend to be generous with young photographers and I'm open to meeting with people but I don't really look at my competitors work."

Alec Soth picks up on this in his blog:

"Though I wouldn't use the word 'competitor', I also wonder if seeing too much contemporary work is problematic. I once had an assistant, Phillip Carpenter, who said something I'll never forget. Phil started off as a musician in Nashville. He was surrounded by a ton of talent and learned about everything going on. But this knowledge, he said, was eventually damaging. Phil explained that the best musicians often come from nowhere. They are in their parent's basement in Idaho, don't really know how to hold the guitar, and consequently develop their own peculiar sound. So here is the question: If limitation spawns creativity, is the limitless resource of the Internet a good thing? Does it do more harm than good to read all these blogs?"

Is it time to switch off?