You have Kelvin to thank for this. Who is Kelvin? I’m not sure, but he took the time to write and ask me a question, so thank you Kelvin! A question I find pertinent, timely and something I am asked about quite frequently. I was going to paraphrase the question, but perhaps it’s better to go with copy and paste. Wait a minute, there is more than one question. Just rechecked the email. Both are worth exploring. Here is question one.
”While wondering why doesn’t anything interest me for a long term project. Basically lost in my creative path. Which led to why am I doing any project if not for the $ (which I’m not).”
Why doesn’t anything interest me? Boy, that’s a big one. I’m no doctor or psychiatrist, scientist or limo driver, so I’m not sure what I’m about to say has much relevance, but I’ll take a stab anyway. I’m not sure how you get to the place where nothing would interest you, but I have a theory. This theory is based on conversations I’ve had with some of my younger family members. When I visit and ask questions about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You know, general life stuff they don’t often discuss unless I come to town.
A year ago I had a conversation with a younger family member and I asked what they liked. “Nothing,” was the reply. “Well, what are you interested in?” “Nothing,” they said. I noticed their hand dropping into their pocket, again and again, pulling out phone, punch code, flip social for ten seconds, turn off phone, replace in pocket. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Endlessly. While looking skittish and uncomfortable. Lost between micro fragments. This isn’t about a phone, this is about what the phone brings. And when I say “phone,” just know it’s digital. What digital brings us. The Internet. The matrix. Everything, everywhere, all the time. Yes, that’s it. And it’s often incredibly destructive.
How many people know some obscure fact about some obscure place because it landed on their news feed but yet they don’t know their neighbors?
This is what I’m talking about. Knowing a little bit about too many things that have no emotional connection to you as a human being. I find that many folks don’t have their own thoughts. They think what is being served to them. So, when I hear nothing is of interest I feel like the person has never given themselves a chance to discover who they are. What are you passionate about? What are your hobbies? What do you read?
Two nights ago I heard someone talking about the election and my first thought was “That’s a sound bite they were delivered, but I know they have no idea what it means.” Someone else’s thoughts implanted because it’s far easier than developing your own thoughts, ideals, and goals. If you are going to do long-term projects you must find something you care about.
Okay, second question.
Why are you doing long term photo projects that require coughing up personal funding and long hours between full time jobs?
Why do what I’m doing? Why do I pay for my own long-term projects that no one will see? In essence, losing money and time. And in between moments of a full-time job. Good question. Easy answer. BECAUSE I LOVE IT. I’ve been doing this since 1988. This is not a hobby. This is who I am. I observe and I record. I’m obsessed by it. Consumed by it. And it’s fun and educational. There is no outside factor. I don’t publish. I don’t do shows, and stopped promoting my work fourteen years ago. I don’t care if anyone sees the work. I don’t care if anyone likes the work. I do it because I couldn’t stand living if I didn’t do it. Calling it a passion project is bullshit marketing lingo. It’s not that. It’s way more.
But what I do, and why, may or may not make sense for you, but there is no doubt about the first piece of advice. Find something you love. Disconnect and see where your thoughts take you. The Internet is a cool thing but it will dominate you if you given half a chance. A decade ago, someone did a test where they put twenty adults, one at a time, by themselves in a windowless room. They were given a choice. Twenty minutes alone, or give yourself a shock treatment and get out early. 77% chose shock. One guy shocked himself again and again even after he’s been told he could leave. We are manufacturing these people now. Don’t be one.
If you are waiting for someone to pay you to do a long-term project you might have to wait forever, and if you do find someone to you pay, odds are they will try to manipulate the project to fit their needs, which means it will be as much their project as yours. If you are new to this business of photography then slow down and forget about everything other than the photographs. If you haven’t done ten or twelve projects then you are still a novice. Practice and enjoy. Learn. Find something small and close to home.
These are good questions, so thank you Kelvin. I’ve been asked numerous times why I do what I do. Law enforcement in particular does not like it when I say I’m doing a project for myself and no one is paying me to be somewhere. It does not compute for a lot of people. I guess it means a lot of people only move if there is money involved. I would not want to live that way. But I can’t tell you what to like or love. I can’t tell you what you should photograph. That you must find on your own.
Comments 19
Amen.
Love the photo
Author
Thanks. She was SO nice. And didn’t post her stuff online. She was doing it only for the fun.
“Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life, as a dog does his master’s chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Author
Ya. Gnaw is a good way of looking at it.
Your photograph made my heart tremor with joy!
Author
She was certainly happy.
Lovely words of wisdom…
Author
Thank you. Just an opinion.
I’m guessing that, given the image included with this article, Kevin uses a phone to take many if not all of his pictures.
If that is the case and I were talking to him, I would suggest the following:
Step 1: If you don’t already have one, purchase or borrow a small, inexpensive digital camera that has a fully manual and fully automatic modes
Step 2: Whether you know how to use the camera or not, watch a couple of YT videos on how to use that camera and also see what kinds of photography others are doing with that camera
Step 3: Over the next week or two carry the camera everywhere you go and take every picture or video that would have taken with the phone with the camera as a still image instead
Step 4: Do Step 3 for another week or two.
It might sound like a simple thing to do. But we all remember how we felt the first time we held a camera, how addictive it was to see the world in a different way. Many of us carry a camera with us and reflexively reach for it before we even realize we want to take a photograph.
In today’s world the first addictive device many young people have held is the cell phone and that reflexive action has been replaced with reaching for the phone and to only see the world through that phone. If Kevin or anyone else really wants to answer his question the first thing they need do is get the phone out of their hands in order to see the world in a different way.
Author
That image was mine and made with mirrorless camera. No idea what Kelvin uses. But, your point is a solid one. Big difference between using a phone and a cam.
I hit the ‘nothing’ wall at least five or six times a week with my elementary/junior high school students.
What music do you like? Nothing.
What’s your favourite film? Disney? Studio Ghibli? (Long pause, no answer).
What about manga? You must like manga, right? … (silence.)
Book? …
Favourite place?
Silence.
If I ask them what their favourite video game or YouTuber is I know I’ll get an answer straightaway but I refuse to do that. The idea is to make them realise that there’s more out there to be discovered.
Author
Most of the younger folks I’m around can’t sit through a film without their phone. They try to do both but then ask “Hey, can you tell me what’s happening in the movie.” I say “No.” Anything long form is pure torture. Had you given me a computer and a phone when I was eight, I would most likely be the same way. Books, forget about it.
I find the best place to find interesting subjects are in the unusual, the out of place, the weird juxtaposition. I pursued a project unsuccessfully for about a year after seeing a couple of guys dressed like professional wrestlers smoking outside a building in a tiny Iowa town. After some research, I found out it was a professional wrestling school. I could never get a clear go-ahead from the operator of the school, but while not connecting on our calendars, he did put me on to some videos about this amateur wrestling community and that got me hooked
As for the WHY, I get satisfaction by sharing it with others, so I will do a project and then look for a place to share/exhibit it. It can be an art gallery, a coffee shop, a library, a corporate office, or another type of venue. The conversation that happens between an artist and a viewer is where the magic happens for me.
Author
All good. That’s how a lot of good stories start. I saw two Huichol Indians along a road in Northern New Mexico. Middle of nowhere, full dress, and playing guitars for no one.
I’ve never really wondered why I write fiction; I just do it. But when prompted to think about it long ago, whether by an article or conversation or whatever, my answer was “because I can’t NOT write.” It’s not a hobby, like collecting Beanie Babies. It’s not a profession, as I don’t get paid for it. I’ve never been published, and I rarely even submit for publication. But I continue to write because I have to.
Your answer for photography is perfect: “This is who I am.” It obviates the need to justify or to classify what you do as a type of pursuit. As I shared with you recently, I am still trying to find myself photographically and still consider myself a novice, but I’m well on my way, having done eight projects with two more in the hopper, and after Photo Week next April, that will be 11. I don’t get paid, have never published a photo book, and have never exhibited publicly. But I don’t mind if I never do because I don’t rely on external validation for my identity as an artist. That comes from within and is manifested by what comes out.
Author
Well said Mark. Inner fire as opposed to the external vortex. What’s interesting to me is the change between my generation and the generations that came after the internet. None of us photo grads ever thought we would make a living with photography. I’ve asked my old classmates, “did we ever discuss being famous?” None. Nobody. But now, it’s assumed that will happen. In fact, it is what drives as lot of folks to photography.
That’s a great foto
Author
Thank you. It was a long time coming.