...you don't send out invoices along with your photographs...
When I started this blog I think I made it incredibly clear that it was intended to be about my life as a commercial photographer. A person who spends 100% of their work time engaged in making, selling or marketing photographs for commercial/business use. The one exception, which has died off almost completely, was the work I also did for editorial outlets which were almost exclusively magazines.
If I bought a piece of gear it was generally because I thought the new acquisition would help me make better images which would, down the road, help me get better clients and even better projects. If I posted an image as an example of some blog topic (about the business) it was not because I thought the image was "great art" but because it demonstrated something about the trend or technique covered in a particular blog post.
This weekend Michael Johnston posted a great comment (made into a post) from a reader credited as JH. I recommend it for everyone on both sides of the "I do this for fun/hobby" and "I do this for a living" divide because it explains so much to me about the feedback I sometimes get here that baffles or torments me. Here's the link.
But back to today's screed.
A constant theme from photographers who aren't engaged in the business of making photos for clients is that "Kirk changes camera systems more often than XXX changes his underwear...." The idea that JH puts forward; that some of us are not process driven but are instead project driven comes into play. Readers who have the benefit of working a subject to death seem happy to use the same gear ad infinitum because the gear is actually part of their long term process and changing gear would change the process and that's disruptive.
On the other hand I see shorter, faster engagements as projects. I tie cameras and camera systems to projects. If similar projects come up I use the same gear. If projects diverge and something new presents itself on the horizon I try to find the gear that works best for the new project. While for a hobbyist an expensive camera purchase is a sunk cost that has no financial return and is doomed only to depreciate, a small business can depreciate or deduct a new camera purchase from the company's profits in the schedule C, make money with the camera in the moment, and then trade the camera off or sell it when the need (or desire) for it fades. It's not a black and white, all or nothing equation.
Were I to get a string of assignments photographing serious portraits for a prosperous company, over time, I might be able to justify the buying of a medium format camera and appropriate lenses because they might give me just exactly the look I want. Or they might provide the placebo effect of knowing I was bringing the most serious gear to the project. But after the glow of the project dimmed and my horror at repeating myself re-emerged I might get tangled up with another project that called for a documentary black and white style of photographing that required different gear. But always the gear is tied to projects.
I read with some amazement when someone writes that they've been using the same camera and lens since 2007 or 1995. I can't imagine that for myself. I'm equally at odds with the idea that someone who is incredibly serious about photography might have only the one camera and no back up camera. But that's the bleed over from my perspective as a working photographer. If today's shooting camera gets caught in a wood chipper (and the strap doesn't pull me in as well...) I still need to finish today's job and be ready for tomorrow's job. And that means having more than one camera --- there somewhat as a safety blanket; just in case, but also as a rational redundancy, like the fact that passenger jets all have at least two engines....
There are some comments at which I just laugh out loud and then move on from. My least favorite is when I describe a financial arrangement and a well meaning person with absolutely no photo business sense suggests: "Just charge them double!!!" or "If the demand XXX you should demand XXXX!!!" as though the client has no say in the matter and no recourse other than to choose me and keep me in business. In nearly every business (with the exception of monopolies) all projects and encounters are based on compromise and negotiation. The idea that I can charge $10,000 for a headshot instead of $800 because the client inconvenienced me is just unimaginable.
I have too thin a skin but I always get ruffled when someone looks at a photo I've posted as an example on the blog and then proceeds to critique said photo as if I had contended that it was the finest manifestation of fine art photography and deserved to be in a museum. Nearly always the photos are only intended to accompany a talking point. Or the images are added to a post as a bit of a visual resting spot to an otherwise droll and poorly thought through essay. But I never intend for an image that is compressed and rendered at 3200 pixels to be thought of as an example of high art. Same for subject matter.
One thing I have to mention is that many photographers who comment here seem to have long term projects they are working on. I wish. I have a vague understanding that I should concentrate more and more on the portraits I like and should figure out something to do with them but I must be the least disciplined worker of all when it comes to making anything into a long term project. I bounce in and out of a number of genres because photography weaves through my everyday life and isn't set aside as a "special treat" or something I carve out of the time I have to spend working at a "real" job or the time I "must" spend on endless family vacations, family gatherings, family obligations (yes, married couples should spend at least one vacation a year away from each other --- solitude can be wonderful). No. I bring a camera with me everywhere and I'm unfiltered about photographing just about everything. From a beautiful face to a smiling lawyer to a well lit (natural light) cup of coffee. If I concentrated on only one kind of photography I'm pretty sure I could make a more successful go of it than I have. But I'm equally sure I'd be bored to tears.
Many people also have a huge reverence for all the photo work that was done in the past. Like large format landscape stuff from the last century. Like street photography from the 1970's, 1980's and onward. While I too find Robert Frank's work and William Klein's work and Richard Avedon's work the foundation for nearly everything I like to look at now it's not my job to halt all my own forward progress is a misguided worship of the work they did 50 or 70 years ago. It's like being a political scientist and only studying the Eisenhower administration --- over and over again. Or claiming that the 13 inch black and white TV from GE, circa 1965, is the highest achievement of electrical engineering aimed at television.
We can give an appreciative nod to those giants who came before us but it's absolute folly to let our admiration for their pioneering paralyze us in the present.
While this flies in the face of popular discussion there is more to a life in photography than just the finished work. The prints. The digital files. To my mind the whole engagement with photography has to be fun, challenging, raucous and social. The work of the work is the process I bond with instead of the process of doing the work. By that I mean the overarching universe of living photographically is much more valuable to me than clamping my bulldog teeth on to one subject/project and working it to death, over and over again like an indestructible bone.
For whatever reason I'm perceiving that photography as I've practiced it, as a business, for so long is slowly vanishing. So are the needs of the clients for what I do. So are the engagements and the flow of money. One would think that this is where panic should set in. Or bitterness at the changing nature and the changing fortunes of photography as a business for the baby boomer generation. I'm sorry. I don't feel like whining. If we did our careers correctly it's too late at 67 years old to depend on the next headshot to pay the bills. Planning should have started happening with these days in mind decades ago. Now I guess it's really time to worry less about the next work project and start having more fun shooting stochastically. Chaotically. Or with just a sense of exuberance. But that's what we should be doing because as much as we might enjoy having structure I've always found that it was the stepping away from structure that made all of this so much fun.
not fine art.
not fine art.
not fine art.
not fine art.
Excellent all around. Here here,
ReplyDeleteSo true. Keep on having fun. It's only the grumpy people who take exception. They hate to see happy carefree people.
ReplyDeleteEric
I think I've always accepted most of your photos as samples of what caught your eye that day, rather than fine art. However, I must say there are times I go back and stare at some of your portraits because they mesmerize and inspire me. I want to be even half that good.
ReplyDeleteMost of my photography (AdAm/hobbyist) is about the "doing" rather than the final product. Don't get me wrong... I'm always overjoyed when I get lucky and the end result is something special, but it's the getting out and doing that makes me happy. Until I recently (semi)retired, it was my release from a stressful week of work. Just looking through a viewfinder and hearing the click of the shutter (or ca-chunk on Hasselblad) immediately starts to relax me. I'm not a morning person but have spent most vacations out before sunrise to catch the magical beauty just before dawn, even if my efforts don't return a winning landscape image.
Although I've never photographed as a source of income, I can still relate to your frequent equipment change-ups. I get completely bored with the same ol' thing, and a new (or even very old) camera seems to bring inspiration. There are all kinds of great reasons to play with different gear, as long as I stay within my budget set by the Department of Treasury (wife).
As a reader of the VSL blog, I have benefitted from your various gear changes by learning what these different brands bring to the table. It was your journey with the Fujifilm X-series which ultimately led me to acquire my first, and later, second X-series cameras.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, it was Gordon Lewis's praise for the Pentax K-7 on his now defunct Shutterfinger blog which helped steer me towards that system many years ago.
I've always appreciated your non nonsesne approach to "camera reviews", because you're actually using them on jobs and in real world scenarios, unlike the YouTubers who simply list off the specs and take a couple of photos of pretty girls, cats, or brick walls.
Keep on doing what you're doing Kirk!
Nice not fine art. I make a lot of not fine art as well.
ReplyDeletefine art or not i love your photos but what i most love is "you being you" :-) Keep on Kirk-ing on or something :-) !!!
ReplyDeleteWe agree on most things, but not all. HCB used Leicas for most of his working life, as I understand it, because they fit him for the kind of photography he was doing. I think you go to different cameras because you do all kinds of photography, and no single camera would fit what you do, so you look for different fits, and that can be a struggle. I grew up doing journalism, both in the Army and working for newspapers, and one thing was constant: get the shot. Didn't have to be perfectly lit, perfectly composed, didn't have to be perfect in any way, just "useable." I've never tried to escape that aesthetic, and I believe the most "significant" photography since the invention of cameras has been that kind of photography. Robert Capa's D-Day photos were badly composed, shot with shaky hands, poorly developed, and tell you more about D-Day than any others I've seen. Russian photographers did some great similar work on the Eastern front, with cameras far less good than iPhones. Bottom line, I can see some sets of serious photographers settling for one camera, or one type of camera, for much of a working life. And other sets needing to change up annually or sooner.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to cameras Kirk I live vicariously through you. However, there is something to be said for finding a tool that works for you and sticking with it. It's not uncommon. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Picasso had a set of brushes he used his entire life. I know many tradespeople who have a favourite set of tools and use those almost exclusively. My father was like that. He had his tools, would often try the latest and greatest, but then ditch those in favour of what he knew would work for him. That may not work for you, but it does for many of us. For myself, I've never really met a camera I didn't like. I seem to get along with all of them and I can adapt pretty quickly to different ones.
ReplyDeleteI have bought several camera on your recommendation such as the Sigma Fp and original Leica SL, but I am retired from professional photography and do this for fun, when I worked it was always with a Nikon Dslr so the controls were instinctive and I never missed a shot Like JC said.
ReplyDeleteDespite all that being said I'm jealous of Michael Kenna who uses square format film Hasselblads for almost all of his long career, prints in his darkroom to an 8in x 8in on a big sheet of paper and has made a living out of it for 40 odd years.
I'm jealous of the sheer simplicity of his approach and determination not to change just because the rest of the world did.
All the best, Mark
Well said. I enjoy the excitement, learning, and re-juvenation that new gear brings. I am curious about what fellow photographers like you, who shoot the kind of things I shoot - are shooting with and what they learn from their process. Like you, I enjoy trying different lens/camera combinations. I suppose 90% of my photography is stochastic (great description Kirk) and unplanned (other than knowing where I will be on a given day). And for me that is where the fun, and the learning, is. Today I am enjoying L mount cameras supplemented with a Ricoh GRIIIX. The past is a sunk cost. I have no plan to change my gear, but change will no doubt come and I'll embrace it.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a Texas saying "Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use it!" ;)
ReplyDeleteMany amateurs with multiple cameras struggle to know them inside out, myself included.
I spent many years shooting one film (HP5+) with a pair of Canon F1N bodies and 35mm/2.0 and 135/2.0 lenses. Nothing else. The gear was totally transparent. No thinking needed.
Diffierent if it's for work.
Funny. I've never heard that saying...
ReplyDeleteI have found that using cameras for long periods of time (hours in a day) hastens the intimacy in a way that struggling with them sporadically never seems to. To really know a camera, and I guess also a gun, one needs enough time to know it inside and out. But that time can be either concentrated or accrued over years. In work, the accrual is quicker.
On projects. If you just look at what you have posted on the Blog you have long term projects in the works. Windows with mannequins. Graffiti covered walls. Specific Color themes. Roller skating on the sidewalks.
ReplyDeleteA lot of projects start from one realizing after a bit that they already have a number of images of a type.
Project Photographer, and didn't realize it.