In one of my go-to inspirational books The Writer’s Image, the photographer Jill Krementz describes some advice she received from one of her colleagues:
But the person who really taught me the most about photography was Ira Rosenberg, another staff writer at the Tribune……If I was feeling proud because I had gotten a picture on the front page that day, he was always very quick to say, “That’s yesterday’s paper. People are already wrapping fish in it. What are you going to do tomorrow?” this had an enormous influence on my general outlook on life.
It comforts me that all of my work (both photographic and written), no matter how important and proud of it I am in the moment, will one day just be fish wrapping or some less useful modern variant—recycled paper, overwritten data, and like.
So what will I do? Well, my best bet is to briefly enjoy any moments of better than average creation I may have, and then joyfully look forward to tomorrow’s work.