Today, one of my comments is the subject of the “Photo Editor’s” post so I’d better write something quick. I wrote that comment in response to my experiences with my most recent work, work I started developing 6 years ago or so.
I did so in response to what I saw was the writing on the wall; photo-journalism was about to take a serious hit and if I wanted to continue making a living I might very well do something instead of bitch.
The resulting work was and is 100% me. It is not derivative of anybody’s, it is self expressive and personal. Something we all hope to achieve. For a brief moment I imagined it would be successful and bring me the cashes and riches I needed to continue expanding and developing it.
Nevertheless, the best part about change is that it forces you to innovate, adapt or switch and bait. I consider my work unique and ground breaking (go ahead disagree, I don’t give a shit), but apart from a few dedicated friends, editors, art directors and a smattering of the cognicenti, this new work has been a dismal commercial failure and I know it and I know why.
I am OK with it and it’s almost a blessing. I will continue working it on my own and take it as far as it will let me. In the meantime, I will work on a new, “less personal and eccentric” body of work and will use the cash I make from it to fund this decidedly “un-visually acceptable” photography.
The best thing about reverses is that it often forces you to discover who you really are as a photographer and as an artist (if I may ever so presume to call myself such a thing).
In the words of a Time editor whom upon seeing this new work exclaimed: ” You found your voice, now you’ve got to learn to sing “. I can only learn to sing by having the capital to devote to it. One way to do so is to get back to work and shoot something a little more” visually contemporary”.