How to Become Better Photographers by Asking Better Questions

Photography is a time-tested way of asking better questions about ourselves and the world we live in. The act and experience of photographing can help us craft crucial, catalytic questions throughout our lives, sometimes consciously and often unconsciously. What if we could ask more fearless questions –– to not only improve our photography, but elevate it through creative renewal and reinvention? This three-day program sparks a richer understanding of the roles photography and inquiry play at work and in life, enabling us to chart a better path forward as artists.

Doug Menuez has long used photography to explore his own curiosity. His book Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution in Silicon Valley 1985-2000 features many of the world’s most inquisitive people, and during his career of more than thirty years, he has photographed everyone from Steve Jobs to movie stars and U.S. Presidents.

Similarly, professor and photographer Hal Gregersen has spent three decades committed to creating conditions where eyes light up as inquiry leads to insight, and insight makes an impact. As the author of Questions are the Answer and The Innovator’s DNA, he has researched, witnessed, and, at times, photographed the ways in which the act of asking fearless questions can unlock valuable innovations and fuel positive change.

In three dynamic presentations, Doug and Hal share how the process of asking and answering fearless questions helps us uncover our biggest blind spots and reframe our creative challenges. With this new perspective, we can become better photographers—and even make an impact in the world.

Day One: Building on Doug’s inventive photography and Hal’s research on innovation, we take a deep dive into the ways that fearless questions fuel creative purpose and expand our impact, sharing—with images and insights—how Steve Jobs did exactly that in a lifetime of inquiry-driven work. We finish with a discussion of approaches you might take to your own photography, work, and life so that fearless questions can result in greater creative impact.

Day Two: Doug and Hal examine situations where fearless questions fueled photography, and photography fueled fearless questions in others’ lives (not to mention their own). They consider how we can better combine photography and inquiry to course-correct and perhaps discover a whole new direction aesthetically, professionally, or personally.

Day Three: Doug shares a handful of photographs that prompt a discussion on the daily habits of courageous risk-taking—getting outside your comfort zone, being willing to be surprised (or wrong), engaging in quiet reflection—and the ways they can sharpen our impact. Doug and Hal finish up this final presentation by focusing on the ability of fearless questions and fearless photographs to kindle a richer, deeper engagement with your creative life.

Through these lively discussions, Hal (an insider of the innovative corporate world) and Doug (an outsider who gained the trust to document it) explore the surprising power of inquiry. Join them and discover for yourself how sensing, asking, and answering fearless questions can unlock the creative possibilities that move you forward in work and in life.

A 10 to 15 minute Question and Answer session follows each daily presentation. Questions from the participants will be reviewed and a few selected during this informal wrap-up conversation.