A few days ago I was asked to write a forward for a photographers book. It is something that I am learning requires a certain skill. The most important being that I need to take note of my first impressions of the work within the book.

With the actual book in question, the first thing I realised was how effortless the compositions appeared. I have thought now for a very long time, that anyone who is able to convey something and make it look effortless, has spent many hours behind the scenes working on it. A Gymnast at the Olympics can make their work look so easy that many of us may consider that we could almost do the same thing with practice. Or perhaps you’ve watched a musician play and thought´I´ll get a bass guitar like theirs, and I should be able to play like them´.

Easy things look easy, because underneath, they aren’t easy at all. It takes practice, effort, many hours, self-learning, constant self review, to make something look easy.

When we are able to pull off this feat, there tends to be one large issue: the skill and effort and artistry is often devalued. Anything that looks easy, is by definition ‘easy’, and therefore I think it tends to lose currency.

So this brings me to our own work. When we are editing or curating our work, anything that does not quite fit, does not appear correct, or seems to draw attention in some unwanted way - these are signs that we have not reached the point of conveying our work to look effortless. Our efforts should appear effortless to the viewers, but if they are able to detect any struggle in our work, then the illusion of competence and excellence suffers.

Take heed of what you feel isn’t quite right. Take heed of what you can’t quite fix. Take heed of anything you think ‘most folks won’t notice’, because the truth is: all these signs are telling you that the work is incomplete.