At our monthly Ealing LIP meeting yesterday we were set an interesting photographic challenge when our chairman, Jonny Baker produced a set of “Oblique Strategies” cards.

The cards (subtitled Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas) are a deck of 7-by-9-centimetre printed cards in a black container box, created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking.

We used the cards by each of us drawing a single card from the shuffled pack, a method intended for when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear…

My card said “Which elements can be grouped”

Everyone will reveal the photographic outcomes in August.

If any other LIP member would like to take part, leave a comment at the bottom of this post for a card and we'll draw one randomly and send you a photo of it and you can then bring along your response to our August meeting.

Here's group member Mel taking note of her strategy at the meeting!

There's a web site that produces an oblique strategy randomly if you want to have a go yourself - but the idea is not to keep trying for a card you like but to work with what is given.