I'm pretty much through reading other blogs on the web. Maybe you're ready to throw in the towel on blogs as well. Even this one. I think, pretty much, we've all gotten to the point where we've sucked out all the knowledge there is to squeeze out of topics like photography and cameras and we're just sticking around for the camaraderie and the occasional blog post about a camera we were smart enough to buy. And, if the later is the case we're mostly just looking for an approval of our choices. It's either that or we go to our usual blogs just out of habit. Something to read over coffee. Maybe a break from political fights streaming everywhere.
The problem is that nearly every blog is someone's opinion. Generally an opinion formed in vacuum of facts. "Everyone is doing this....." "Nobody is doing this..." "This niche is dead...." "Don't eat this or you'll die!" "Eat this now or you'll die!!!" "Sony cameras are the best." "Leica cameras are the best." "Nikon cameras are the best." Or, my favorite: "All the cameras are crap now and we should all go back to shooting film." And it's the same on other kinds of channels. Camping blogs. Car blogs. Etc. In fact I'm waiting to see "retro" on those other channels. A return to tried and true canvas tents. A renaissance of carburetors in long luxury cars. Along with more V-8s.
Many photo blogs "spill a lot of ink" begging for money and fostering the presumption that all photographers are impoverished and living on the edge. Again, my point of view is quite different. A lot of working photographers I knew retired wealthy. I guess it all depends on where your focus lies. And who you hang out with. Some of us think prints and the printing of photographs is dead. Others cling to the idea that prints are some sort of "gold standard."
One of our favorite long time photo bloggers just announced that he can't give portraits away for free and is toying with the idea of paying people to come by and have portraits made mostly so he can control the process. My point of view is exactly opposite; people pay me to make portraits and portraits still seem to be in demand. People ask for what they see and like. Show work to get work. Show art to get collaborators. Two points of view exactly opposed. Maybe it depends on where you live. Or how you market. Or some other disconnection.... Blame it on the overall market? Blame it on a trend? At one point do we conjecture that some people are just bad at doing the business end of the art game and that being able to sell a concept is a secret to success? More people who might want to collaborate... if they are exposed in advance to the kinds of work you want to make...
Peter McKinnon (very famous YouTube photo influencer with 5 million+ followers) buys two Leica models, loves them and spends half a video stating that he doesn't understand them, doesn't know how they work, hates the lens cap and thinks they are too expensive. And ends by, again, telling us how much he loves them...
Diet books are back. An endless cycle. Will a new appreciation of pickle ball be far behind?
Maybe I'm just in a funk after a long week of actually making a living by photographing mostly people, for a large ad agency, for the money, but I'm thinking we're all just tired of hearing anything more about photography. Really tired. Hence we have the once exclusively writers about photography grasping for new topics and trying hard to hang on to audiences in spite of the topics going off the rails.
I think we've all finally gotten the message: All cameras are good enough. All lenses are good enough. All post processing software is good enough. The new smart phones are good enough. The new tripods are all good enough. Everything is too expensive now. Only dentists use Leicas. Everything we learned in the film days is as useful as a book of matches in a hurricane now. Photographers are no longer envied. Inflation is uncomfortable. Film is too expensive. "I hope my spouse doesn't find out about my new: Lens, Camera, Flash, Ferrari!!!" (might be a good idea to stop lying to your partner about joint finances).
I think we're all tired of street photography. I know I'm just exhausted at the prospect of having to look at yet another portfolio of "dramatic" black and white landscape prints/images. I'm tired nearly to death of images of half naked women trying to look "sexy" on share sites. About the only thing I still find interesting on the web is videos about rescued dogs. And that's quickly getting endlessly self-referential.
How to reconcile all this with my trip to an art gallery today where the average price of contemporary paintings seemed locked in at an average of about $75,000. Somebody is buying art or big galleries wouldn't exist. Just because you and I are not splashing out $125,000 for a Banksy print doesn't mean that someone else isn't. It's all so wildly dis-associative.
If we're all too poor to buy new cameras and lenses (as some contend) how then to explain the fact that cars costing over $100K are so in demand that there are waiting lists for them --- but not for middle class cars? If the Leica Q3 is so outrageously overpriced then why are the waiting lists at dealers around the world pegged at 18 months to 2 years? Somebody is buying them.
No, I think mostly we age out of hobbies and habits. I've spent a lot of time typing about things I know but I don't think there is anything else in the tank. I like posting stuff because I also like to look at the slides shows of the work. But blogs, videos and podcasts about photography only remind me that we got nearly everything we needed to get figured out figured out years ago. Now we're just like people at church singing the same hymn every Sunday and sinning all week long. We want photography to go back to being cool and interesting. Maybe it will --- at least for people who haven't drained the entire subject into our brains and soaked in it for decades. Hard to know.
Today was our first day under 100°. I walked through downtown. I noticed a big increase in private security services. I notice things looked cleaner; more locked down. I guess we're gearing up for ACL Fest or something. An inpouring of tourists again. Dear God, I just hope it's not another bout of Formula One. I can't bear to hear that F1 really is a "sport" because the drivers lose 7 pounds of sweat during the race. So do people who sit for too long in saunas... Ah well.
Leica SL2 camera. Voigtlander 50mm APO Lanthar lens. Timberland boots. All good.
The beginning of the end of a city's coolness corresponds with the arrival of double decker tour busses.
At least they are not riding on the sidewalks....
Red.
More red.
