Reviewed by Marie-Hélène Fasquel for Readers' Favorite

The Creative Way by Steven B. Wills is a portfolio of digital images. But it is first and foremost a meditation on creativity as an act of resilience, remembrance, and transformation. It combines photography, digital enhancement, abstract experimentation, and AI-assisted imagery. This allows Wills to construct a body of work that is almost realistic. Imagination plays a huge part in this artistic process. However, nature remains at the heart of the collection, and that is something I really like: coastlines, skies, flowers, and luminous landscapes. They seem to become emotional landscapes shaped by memory, loss, wonder, and hope. The opening sections devoted to nature photography are particularly striking. Works such as Colorful Sky and Abstract Sunrise demonstrate Wills’s fascination with atmosphere and light. In these images, the sky becomes almost painterly, saturated with intense colours that dissolve the boundary between photography and impressionistic art. The effect reminded me at times of the Romantic tradition, particularly painters such as Turner, whose skies and seascapes put emotion and sublimity above strict realism. Wills similarly transforms natural scenery into emotional experience. The landscapes are not merely observed; they are felt.

The Creative Way by Steven B. Wills is a work of art that I will not forget! Indeed, a compelling aspect of the collection is the way digital manipulation is embraced openly rather than concealed. The Poppy, for instance, seems to stand for the author’s use of editing apps to heighten texture and colour. There is something almost tactile in the image. In literary terms, the images the author selected evoke the gothic tradition, with its fascination for ruins, memory, and the haunting persistence of the past. At the same time, they reminded me of certain American photographers of desolation and abandonment, where empty spaces become deeply human precisely because of their silence. What gives these works additional resonance is the knowledge of Wills’s personal journey. His references to illness, surgery, grief, and remembrance infuse the collection with emotional authenticity. The art often functions as a visual response to adversity. One image created in memory of a deceased friend, for example, transforms mourning into a luminous tribute. Rather than dwelling in darkness, the work seeks consolation through colour and composition. As a parent and grandparent, I was particularly touched by this aspect of the book, and that is what I probably liked the most. The author appears less interested in showcasing digital virtuosity than in exploring perception itself: how color, repetition, and light affect mood and imagination. As a teacher, I also appreciated the accessibility of The Creative Way.