Creativity continues to be impregnated with that halo of mystery that has given rise to the consideration that it is a gift or talent of divine origin. Thus, one of the origins attributed to the expression "olé", used to applaud a talented performance, refers to a derivation of the Arabic word "Allah" (God), considering that divine intervention is behind such performance. Moving away from this somewhat naive vision, and trying to delve deeper into such an enigmatic human competence, we must recognize that we are far from finding a clear and unitary explanation. The reasons for being faced with such an elusive subject have a lot to do with its heterogeneity, since we can be faced with different types of creativity depending on the field in which it manifests itself, or the phase of the creative process in which we find ourselves.

 To narrow the field, and thinking in the field of photographic creation, we can find different successive moments in this process. Simplifying a lot, we must mention an initial stage in which we may be developing a project that we want to develop. This moment can be assimilated to the first two phases of the classic Wallas model: an initial phase of Preparation, which requires conscious and voluntary work and effort, followed by Incubation, which is much more relaxed and in which unconscious processes predominate. This incubation is very important, since in those moments of relaxation, and even boredom, the ideas that would have been gestated during the laborious preparation phase tend to sprout. As Walter Benjamin wrote, "boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience". It is also necessary to consider, in this process of photographic creation, a final phase consisting of the editing of the work, which requires the selection and ordering of the images to be included in a series or project. In this phase there are both deliberate cognitive processes and other more unconscious and intuitive ones.

But between these two moments lies the real photographic act. The one in which we decide to frame in the viewfinder a piece of the reality that surrounds us and press the shutter to build a permanent image. In that very brief instant hides all the mystery that gives and takes away the value of the captured image. But what happens in the brains of some photographers that leads them to create images of admirable poetry and beauty? Why are they capable of making, as Von Hofmannsthal or Fox Talbot pointed out, common or anodyne scenes or objects, such as a half-full watering can, a broom or a simple pair of shoes, suddenly acquire a sublime and moving character? Mircea Cartarescu was right when he wrote "To be a poet means to be able to see beauty where no one else sees it".

I think we would be wrong to think that it is an act with a strictly intellectual and rational basis. We would be missing the mark if we were to consider it one of the many manifestations of that formal thinking that Jean Piaget defined as the ultimate goal of human intellectual development. A rational thought, fundamental in the progress of the development of science and technology, which is articulated from verbal language and flees from intuition.A reading of what some artists have written about the creative act can give us some clues about artistic thought and about the essence of the photographic act. Thus, Paul Cézanne alludes to the importance of leaving rationality aside when creating, "When I start to think, everything is lost". And Claude Monet referred sharply to the incompatibility of verbal and visual thinking: "To learn to see, you have to forget the name of things". Something similar to what Saint-Exupéry expressed: "One can only see well with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes". Or by María Zambrano, "To analyze is a way of remaining on the sidelines. When one only analyzes, one neither looks nor admires". Although, perhaps it was the surrealist movement that most decidedly opted to set rationality aside to give free rein to unconscious tendencies.

 If we place ourselves in the field of photography, we can allude to how Serge Tisseron refers to the importance at the moment of framing of a special mental predisposition that makes us feel integrated into the world. Or how Cristóbal Hara wrote "There are photographs that you can only take when you are inside what is going on and into that rhythm? When you're into the rhythm you're invisible because you're physically and emotionally in harmony with it." And we couldn't forget Cartier-Bresson "You have to think before and after, but never while we are taking the picture." It is that mental predisposition that turns everyday experience into the raw material of photographic art. The one that allows the person who photographs to live an epiphanic experience that entails a magical and sensitive relationship with the world, which is not characterized by the idea or the meaning, but by the immediate presence. An experience in which the human being establishes a relationship with the reality of existence and begins to feel with the guts and the heart.

Placing oneself in this state of attention and full consciousness has some positive consequences. On the one hand, the gaze will be attentive to some details that usually escape when perception is blinded by worries and thoughts, and obscured by expectations about whether or not it will be a good photo, or by doubts and thoughts about the beauty of the subject. Let's think of those occasions when an artistic work is so loaded with information and discourse that it is not able to pierce the heart of the observer. Contemplation is opposed to production, since the compulsion to produce destroys contemplative recollection (Chul Han, 2021).

On the other hand, by connecting with the outside world in an intuitive way, a contact not filtered by mental constructs is taking place, which leaves an open door to the non-conscious part of the photographer, and to his deepest emotions. This aspect is very relevant when it comes to finding one's own style, since that style does not usually arise from a deliberate effort of self-expression but from an unconscious interest in certain motifs, lights, colors or framing. A selective interest that gives stylistic coherence and that springs from all the vital experiences that the photographer has accumulated throughout his or her life and that have forged his or her personal identity. All our significant experiences, but also the books we have read, the art, the photos or the cinema we have seen and the music we have listened to merge into a melting pot from which creation is born. It is a biographical material, mostly forgotten, that our brain preserves in different areas (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.), that configures our cognitive unconscious and that flows better when our mind is relaxed and in a state of full consciousness. The explanation of this fluidity is given by neuropsychology, which shows that these mental states of relaxation favor the connection between different brain areas: sounds, colors, lights, smells and touch are mixed in a creative power that seeks to express itself through images.

In short, the photographic act, like other acts of artistic creation, requires a certain mental state of relaxation and contemplation in which the more rational processes of our brain are put aside so that all the unconscious material that accumulates in our emotional world and that will contribute to the definition of our own style can open up through our consciousness.