Creative: Conquerors of the Useless

Yes, I stole this title from Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. If you haven’t seen 180 Degrees South, you should. It’s fun. I know the main character, not well, but we’ve done a project together, and I’ve ventured to his house to interview him. He’s a doer. Climber, surfer, photographer, traveler, dirt bag. This idea, “The Conquerors of the Useless,” rings true for me, but perhaps in a way that might surprise people. I think this not only applies to mountaineers, it also applies to photographers. Well, to some of us, not all. Celebrity portrait photography, paparazzi photography, yes, admired and in demand by the masses. People talk of Koons and Gursky selling images for million dollars, and yes, this did have an impact on the market, but the most valuable photography in the world is paparazzi photography. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sold portraits of their twins for $14 MILLION. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

We want to pretend the most meaningful work gets the most attention. #WRONG

I knew in 1993, there was no American market my work. By this time, the industry was beginning its death arc, as if a wing had come off but the plane still remained on its original flight path. The crew knowing their time had come, but what else to do but keep flying. I wanted to do long-form, black and white, documentary projects, which is all fine and dandy, only the industry said, “Nah, we’re good.” Why? Because this work DOES NOT SELL ADVERTISING. Period. End of story. We want to act all high and mighty, or like the dreaded “concerned photographer,” but the truth is, very few people care. Give them fast food, Netflix, and a new iPhone and they are happy to underperform on their way to a high-cost early grave.

Not me. Fu%k that. But I was fortunate from day one. One, I’m noncompetitive. Overly competitive photographers are like middle aged white guys on $12,000 road bikes pretending they are riding in the Tour de France. Please. So awful. I’ve seen photographers pay people to keep other photographers out of an area. I’ve seen photographers pay civilians to stage news photographs. Yes, sorry to pop your illusionary bubble. This industry is filled with wolves. Two, the crux pitch for me was always being in the field to make those photographs. What came after, whatever. The same is true today. This is why I can work on a project for years, make a single copy of a book for myself, then move on to do another project. One of the primary reasons I never liked social media. Why? Just why? So embarrassing. And now, I’m moving even further away by focusing primarily on my notebooks.

A friend left a message about a book about bicycles. A huge volume of photographs about bikes. That’s it. Just bikes. All over the world. My friend said, “Oh, so boring.” Might be true, especially if you don’t ride bikes. I do ride bikes, almost daily, but I still wouldn’t buy this book. However, I know why publishers print books like this. THEY SELL. And they sell in great numbers. Publishers don’t care about your concerns. Publishers are in business to sell books. What sells? Hmm, how about a book about one of the most significant transportation devices in human history, utilized and beloved by humans all over the planet? Or, they could print 500 copies of my Sicily work only to remainder those books two days later after they don’t sell.

No one cares, and now as the world moves further into a “Post-Truth” world, they care even less.

They care more about fiction and conspiracy than they do about anything real. Real might make you question your thoughts or your great leader who pockets billions off your stupidity and hate. So, your little doc project, odds are, has almost no audience. But so what? What we forget is that some of the best doc photographers in history worked when there was no industry. No nothing. No magazines, no galleries, no museums collecting photography. And, oh by the way, they were self-publishing their work before there were photobook publishers. (This reality really bothers some folks.) They did it because they felt a calling. They needed to do it. There was no other reason.

Many snappers now get the cart so far ahead of the horse, the horse hasn’t even been born yet. Choosing their gallery and book publisher before they have made a single photograph. No wonder the rest of the industry makes fun of photography. All demand and very little supply. You don’t deserve anything. You don’t deserve to catch a break. Most of us have not put the work in. Not even close. I see so many superficial projects with art speak statements and references based on coattails. I see them and think, “Not again.” This person is trying to hit a home run before they learned how to swing.

Maybe it’s about desire and expectation. I do remember having a desire to make it as a photographer, but I never looked at it like photography owed me something, or that I would gain fame or notoriety. Studying photojournalism was in great part about journalism. Tell the story. The story is the main character. The photographer is at best in a supporting role. So, I was just about to get in my trusty van and drive to my friend’s city, just so that I could hook kick him in the head, when he left another message. “I just want to do this for me,” he said. I felt a sense of relief, but also a bit of frustration as I had already visualized my foot impacting his cranium. Ya, that’s it my brother. Do it for you. That’s all you need. And this is a lesson for all of us. Do it for you, and then if someone takes notice, great. If not, keep going and do it again. You never know when that thing you did for you will have real resonance with me, or my friends and neighbors.

Last night I shot a job, documentary style, but my wife was shooting the stages images. All the client wanted was staged. In their world, the doc stuff has no real significance. And I get this. I do, but I did my thing anyway. When my wife asked why I was continuing to work I said, “Practice, this is for me, not them.” I needed it. I was working with a camera with intention. That’s rare for me these days, so a switch was flipped and I told myself I needed to perform. Internal vs external. I knew the images I liked, the moment I made them, but I also knew they wouldn’t respond. That’s okay. Now, as I sit here downloading, I can see the book pages in my mind. A book they will never see.