Every now and then, a video lands in your YouTube feed at exactly the right time. This time it wasn't a gear review or a tutorial, but something a little deeper that speaks to the core of what it means to make photographs.
This week, that video came from Adrian Vila – better known as Aows on YouTube. If you’ve spent any time on his channel, you’ll know what I mean when I say it's a rare corner of the internet; slow, considered and beautifully made.
Aows has been a quiet yet constant source of inspiration for years, especially for those of us drawn to black and white photography, foggy forests, square frames and wandering without expectation. His field videos are often meditative, built on mood and intuition.
But now and then, he drops something more reflective; videos not just about photography, but about being a photographer.
ABOVE: Aows' YouTube video Don't Quit
His latest, titled Don’t Quit, is one of those. And if you only watch one YouTube video this week, I genuinely think it should be this one.
The video opens with a quiet truth that the great photographers, the ones we admire and study, didn’t just make great work. They made great work for a long time.
"What’s less appreciated by many," Vila says, "is that they did it for a very long time. Year after year. Decade after decade."
He cites Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis as a prime example; a project started in his sixties, which took eight years to complete. Even for a master, that’s no small feat. The physical and emotional toll, the years of travel, the grind behind the glamor. This is often overlooked in our highlight-reel culture.
But the deeper point is that over time, "talent becomes indistinguishable from perseverance". That’s the heart of Vila’s message. It isn’t a video about cameras or lenses, but rather a call to rethink our relationship with time.
We spend so much energy wishing we had better equipment or more exotic locations. But the truth, Vila says, is that what we need most is time. Not even huge blocks of it, just the commitment to keep showing up.
"There’s no shortcut here," he says. "No substitute for showing up over and over again. And doing it in a sustainable way."
Like many, I’ve felt the tension of trying to stay creatively alive while juggling work, life and bills. And in those moments, it’s easy to feel like the odds are against you. But Vila’s philosophy urges you to 'make photography inevitable'. Build habits and routines that support the work, even when the inspiration fades.
One of the most refreshing elements of the video is its honesty about failure. "For every image I’m proud of, there are hundreds that didn’t work."
Vila reminds us that the process is what matters, not the illusion of perfection. He even quotes from the excellent book Art & Fear:
"The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars."
We all know this deep down. But it’s easy to forget when you’re scrolling through someone else’s best nine on Instagram. This video is a balm for that, and a reminder that the junk photos, the bad edits, the frustrating shoots all count and are all necessary.
So yes, if there’s one YouTube video photographers should watch this week, it’s this one. Not because it’ll teach you a new technique, but because it might just keep you going.
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