I Thought Photography Was the End

I thought that when I'd figured out the technical and creative aspects of photography, that'd be the end. The end of the struggle, the uphill climb, the fumbling through the dark. I'd reach a fine bright plateau on which I could smoothly accelerate to success, notoriety, and novelty-sized checks in large amounts. As it turns out, photography's just the beginning. Now that I've turned myself into an adequate camera operator/lighting designer/idea generator/concept executor/retoucher/printer, it seems I need to add a thing or two to the batter. The hill ahead is Sales! Marketing! Taxes! Bookkeeping! Sustainability!

I want photography to be the end. I want to make photographs and then cash checks, so I can make more photographs (and buy sports cars).

But I can cry about it all I want...photography's just the beginning, and the business of it, well, that's probably just the beginning too.

Matter of fact, the end, at least the end in the way that I'm seduced into thinking about it, that's death, really.

When Is A Photo Done, Anyway?

Lately I've been coming up against a new problem: when is a photo done? Last year, there was a problem with the same name, but the answer was "About ten minutes after I think it's done." This year the answer seems to be "About an hour before I think it's done." Two years ago, I'd get to the point where I'd want to stop, which is not to be confused with having finished, and it would take a lot of effort to keep going, mainly because I didn't have a good set of options from which to choose. For example, were I to do this photo again today, I would include a rim light on his head and shoulders, to mimic the movie projector light better.

But that option didn't occur to me back then.

Working on this whiskey bottle, I got it to the point depicted on the left, then I spent an hour or so more fooling around with the smoke.

I know I could have messed around with different backgrounds, made the whiskey amber instead of black, accented the cap instead of the label, etc, so I have more options now, and that's great, but it's still not easy to tell when a photo is done.

Ideally, I'll be working with an art director, or at least a stylist and an assistant, instead of on my own. It's much easier to decide with some additional input.

It looks to me now that the smoke picture is overdone.

Come to think of it, however, the smoke one might be underdone. There's a kind of rhythm to it, a kind of "not done...not done...not done...DONE...not done...not done...not done...DONE...".

And a rhythm like that is exactly the sort of thing my intuition can easily pick up, so I get once again to the bottom line: listen to my intuition.

What

This bags project has been rolling around for a while, and I'm stuck between two emphases: the shopping spectrum, or what we need vs what we think we need. Both are pretty interesting but I don't think I can hit both of them and remain cohesive. This one's about spectrum.

780

780. 780 postcards to 780 art buyers. 780 times my photo will cross the desk of someone who might be interested. 780 seconds to make an impression. 780 opportunities to grab enough attention to interrupt the trip to the trash can. Another milestone in my new career, and from what I've read, from what I've heard, I can expect...nothing. I'd love to start getting briefcases full of money, but everything points toward a long struggle before that happens. Over the next six weeks I'll be calling local buyers and setting up appointments to show my book. This usually results in more immediate results. But it's nerve-wracking. I fully expect to flub my lines embarrassingly the first couple of calls. But I'll keep doing it. At about half steam, ha ha. Anyways, feels good to be here. Yeah.

Control

I've been working on this firecrackers still-life stuff. I've wanted to show them smoking and such, so I've been fooling around with smoke. The smoke stuff has started to take on a life of its own. Most of my stuff lately has been so controlled, contrived, which I still like. I don't have much control over the smoke, though, so it's a lot more discovery, happy-accident kinda stuff. It's nice.

And in line with relinquishing control: no sixth of six Death Valley posts!