Something that jumped out at me today and I realized that it was something that has been bothering me for a while and from two different perspectives. The first was ‘am i thinking this because of personal jealousy or vanity?’ and the second is ‘what is it about so many photographers these days that instead of sending a casting call with a project in mind, they post a message that suggest that they are so busy/exclusive/talented that people should be contacting them to work with them’. In addition to this last point I want to say that puffing your messages up with phrases such as ‘I’m testing with agency level models’ does you no favours as it further shows that your talents require only agency level models and that the rest need not apply because your time and skills are so precious.
Let’s take the first point:
When I see other photographers post messages about their latest work I am always keen to see what people are doing and where they are taking their art and perhaps taking photography and photographers as well. This is all to the good for all of us as we can see what the trends are and see what gaps may be there for us to fill with our own artwork.
I am never jealous of other photographers or their work. I used to be and it is thanks to my wonderful wife that I sat back and decided that I am happy to be good or ok at photography and that i do not need to be great at it to enjoy taking photographs or to appreciate the work of other photographers and artists. I am therefore quite content to say that what I think about the rash of overly self promotional posts is not that I am jealous of someone else’s work or their success or anything approaching jealousy.
The Second Point:
The other question I asked myself was ‘am I commenting out of a sense of vanity’. I have never thought of myself as a vain person, more often I am self effacing and introverted. If you were vain you would be joining in the posting trend to show that you were in just as much need of attention as those people who post such messages. Vanity is something that is healthy when called self confidence but can easily turn into a vice where you are obsessed with who you are in the eyes of others and with the need to constantly demonstrate how successful you are or how successful you want people to think that you are. I think that to post how you are doing, what you have photographed, who you have worked with is a valuable tool in getting known and for people to see your own personal style and to prompt them to consider you as photographer if they have a project in mind for the future or if it something more urgent that they are working on at a given moment.
Unfortunately when self confidence turns into vanity, we are no longer looking to promote ourselves to prospective clients, we are putting ourselves out in public as better than everyone else and that we are now fishing for compliments on our work and wanting other to be jealous of our success or apparent success. When we post vanity based posts in which we indicate that we are special and that we are exclusive, just to make others jealous or compete with us for ‘likes’ then we are sadly missing the point of showing our work to others instead we are demonstrating nothing more than photographic hubris.
The last factor that demonstrates photographic hubris is the type of post that I have seen many times that starts out with words to the effect of ‘ i have only a few spots left this month, hit me up for a rare gap in my schedule’ or ‘I am so exclusive and don’t want to waste my talent on unworthy models that I am testing with agency standard models’ Unless you are a full time professional photographer with a serious client list then this sort of post is just plain hubris and self centered. Most of the posts I see are not from professionals, they are serious and very talented amateurs who are getting ahead of themselves and trying to create an air of exclusivity and scarcity that their profile and or website doesn’t reflect. There are many people who come into the facebook groups for photography or modelling who are not professional, who have limited experience etc. If you want agency standard models then go to an agency! you don’t need to post a message saying that you have or are working with agency standard models! this is just disrespectful to new models and can only make them think that unless they are ‘agency standard’ that people who are posting things like this just wont work with them. If you are developing your portfolio then it’s best that you say so up front and don’t be self centered and reject people because they don’t meet what you think your standard of work really is. Be honest with yourself and work with people who reflect your level of skill and experience, as you get better and more known you will have the skills and experience to make the most of the models who like you are trying to make art their full time career.
I think if we are really honest with ourselves then would realize that the old saying that ‘money talks and wealth whispers’ is relevant in that if we have talent it really does show in our work AND our posts ‘the whisper’, and if we do not but like to think we do and want others to think the same, then we ‘talk’. There is nothing wrong with saying that we are busy etc in a post if it is to let people know that we are going to be busy and not looking for new projects, but to say we are busy to drive people to our business is the same as saying that we are having a sale on widgets when all we are really doing is trying to get people to come to us under the impression that they are getting something special or that they will rue the day they did not take the opportunity we are ‘generously’ offering. People will find out that the sale or opportunity isn’t really all that special after all.
Let’s try to be honest and say that we welcome everyone who might want to work with us, that we will consider all opportunities and projects whether TFP or paid or whatever. Never turn away someone who might want to work with you even if it’s a small project on a TFP basis, you never know what it will lead to and besides what do you really have to lose by being nice and helping someone out. If you really don’t have time for new projects, don’t advertise the fact because the people who want to work with you will either know how busy you are already or they will contact you and you can tell them personally. Saying it in a post is like shouting to the world that you are so good that people only of a certain standard can apply to work with you. Now THAT is really just Hubris.
As always all comments are welcome.
Derek.