Do or do not there is no try. ~Yoda
Listening Carefully: The Jedi Student
Over the last five years my life has been completely consumed both personally and professionally with photography. During that time the commercial photographic industry has changed so rapidly and dramatically that every professional photographer I know has struggled in some way with one of the major changes that has happened since my entry into this profession.
One of the most obvious and major changes was the transition from film to digital. Although, film may be an artistic choice now, it is most certainly not the standard for creating and delivering images to clients. But, in 2002, less than a decade ago – digital photography was barely an option for the professional market. This singular change is so great I could write books on the topic, but even this reality is only a small part of the much bigger puzzle. Which is the question all professional photographers should be asking themselves, “Where are we now?” And, “Where is this business going?” The key word being business.
Because photography is my career and I’m a research orientated type of person I’ve put a huge amount of effort into trying to understand what is happening within this business from all sides. In my effort to understand what is going on I have reached out to a lot of industry leaders. I have met with, interviewed, e-mailed, or had phone conversations with reps/agents, other commercial photographers with various focus areas, talked and worked with assistants, and digital techs, reached out to writers, bloggers, camera manufactures, and just about anyone else connected to the industry. As well as read just about every single photographic publication I could get my hands on. Even going as far as reading articles from before I owned my first camera to give me a foundation for understanding where we find ourselves now.
But perhaps my greatest teacher and guide has come from my own professional experience in working with clients, art buyers, art directors, creative directors, editors, curators, printers, etc. and working directly with small businesses, or bands, and especially the overall mass of individuals you end up dealing with on a day to day basis while working towards getting an image created.
Beyond these things I read a lot of blogs. I now follow close to 300 blogs related to photography. One of the things that attracts me to the blog-o-sphere is that bloggers put a lot of their own opinions into what they write about. In some ways this makes the information more helpful because it is coming from their personal experience on or about what is happening right now. Having so many people writing so freely lends itself to more honesty.
On the flip side blogs can be less helpful for a reader because many bloggers don’t put out information that is based on solid facts or their posts are often not clearly researched so their opinions come across as random rants that aren’t very well articulated or clearly thought out. In other words, as an avid blog reader I have to sort through a lot of crap to find information that is accurate, helpful, and/or interesting and worthwhile.
Nonetheless so many people are sharing their insights on what is going on in our industry that if you’re paying attention and looking really hard you can get a good idea of where the actual problems and positives are within the world of photography. You can even get good clues as to where things will be in the future.
Over the last two years I’ve spent a lot of time commenting on other people’s blog posts but done little formal writing myself. However, I’ve been planning to start my own blog around issues within the commercial and wider photography world, but needed the last couple years to learn, listen, and develop ideas I felt are worth writing about. I’ve been taking a lot of notes, writing outlines, and scribbling down random collections of thoughts during the same time I’ve been reading other people’s work and feel now is the time for me to open my ideas to a wider audience.
One thing that will become a common thread throughout my writing in this blog is how much I disagree with a lot of the things I have read or are even considered common conventions within this business. Saying something a thousands times over doesn’t mean it is accurate or helpful. I will write about things that go against the grain. I feel it is important for me to write about things I disagree with because there are fewer people willing to call out the norm than those willing to go along with status quo so as not to come across as the bad guy. I’m not afraid of being the bad guy if it means presenting a more honest picture of what is going on in our industry right now.
Another thing I will spend a lot of time writing about for this blog will be my thoughts on the future of photography — the future as it relates to business, art, culture, anything and everything that presents a clue as to where we’re collectively headed.
And finally, this blog is going to be a place for me to write out loud about the direction I’m taking my own career because I finally feel like I understand what sets me apart from other photographers and why I take the approach that I take to my work, my art, and my business.
Speaking Carefully: The Jedi Teacher
The idea behind ‘The Photo Jedi’ comes from a very common theme I read, or hear, or feel like is one of the most common misconceptions about photography in general — which is that photography is ultimately about the camera. Almost every single person I tell I’m a professional photographer to asks the same first question, “What camera do you use/have?”
A camera is a tool. It’s nothing more and nothing less than that and anyone with money can buy one. When you build a house you use tools and you use the right tools for the job, but you’re tools won’t help you much if you don’t have an idea how you’re going to build the house in the first place. Many people have a very hard time separating the tool from the process when it comes to photography.
‘The Photo Jedi’ is my metaphor for conveying this point. As we have all come to know via popular culture the Jedi’s power comes from within their own minds and the use of the ‘force’. And not from any sort of tool they may or may not have.
Although, the light-saber and the camera might be considered one in the same for ‘The Photo Jedi’s” among us.
Besides that it doesn’t hurt that Obama, Mr. T, Chuck Norris, ET, Ewoks, and some awesome squirrels are also Jedi warriors for me to hang out with.
Ready, set, about to starting blogging your face off….