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Re: [OM] (OM) OT ... Sacrilege? Sedition??

Subject: Re: [OM] (OM) OT ... Sacrilege? Sedition??
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:11:22 -0500
Bob,

I'm going to challenge your thinking a little here. Feel free to challenge
back.

Profit=Hack. I think you've gotten yourself into the anti-Kinkade mode here
where profit from art means being a hack. Kincade was a hack that managed
to key in on the Norman Rockwell worshipers and Beanie Babie buyers and was
able to turn it into an industry. Artist? Hardly. Successful illustrator
and promoter? Absolutely. It's sad, but if you go to most art fairs around
this country, you'll find that this kind of emotive "feel good 'art'" sells
10:1 over real art. But the reality is that Mr. Kinkade managed to anchor
down one extreme end of the spectrum. Being able to turn mass-produced
4-color offset prints into a lucrative business where the stores would
carry reprints instead of original art. A 4-color print selling for $1200?
Amazing. The ones with actual paint on them even more!

A successful artist will spend 90-95% of his/her effort and time promoting.
That means that for every work of art that takes a full day to produce will
require up to 20 days of effort to sell/promote. Do the math. This is the
real world for real artists. It is the fact of life. Otherwise, what is the
purpose of the art? Nobody is going to randomly knock on doors in your
neighborhood asking if you are an artist and if you have anything to sell.
Seeking out artists is not done in the same manner of people searching old
barns looking for abandoned classic cars. Art is a message for the artist.
If you have a message, don't you want it to be heard/seen?

Craftsman vs. Artist. What is the difference? I think you have found
yourself in the position of a craftsman. You're producing INCREDIBLE work,
but for the express purpose of the sale, not the message. A craftsman is
NOT a hack. A craftsman is an expert that usually lives a pretty good
lifestyle and is able to support a spouse and put kids through school. A
craftsman almost always possesses more skills and technical understanding
of the art than the artist who is carving new paths forward. But the artist
needs to live with somebody else who is paying the bills and usually
raising the kids. The artist is mentally not there half the time. Yes, I'm
stereotyping a bit, but not by much. Insert "musician" for "artist" if you
want.

Bob, you and I are craftsmen. We know how to produce whatever it is that we
want. Our skills (although bent a bit differently to different areas) are
comparable and we both know how to shoot pictures to make a buck. If the
purpose is primarily to make a buck then we aren't fulfilling our own
vision, but the vision of the customers. No different than a commercial
photographer who does whatever the art director says. Or the wedding
photographer that shoots a set of pictures that fulfill a very narrow
purpose. Or the photojournalist that is shooting for the editors. Are all
these "hacks"? Of course not. But by your broad definition of hack, they
could be. They are just fulfilling the commitments of life where if you
don't work you don't eat.

What do you call the artist photographer that just broke up with his
girlfriend? Homeless.

I'm going to pick on NSURIT for a second. Bill is an exceptional
photographer and very creative. But I recognize a distinct turning point
where he went from capturing life, to capturing scenes with an unique
vision to now expressing original vision. To pick on myself, I've gone from
capturing life to expressing original vision to capturing scenes. I so
desired to make money with my photography that I shifted my own vision to
that of the customers' vision. Whatever sells, I shoot. At some point, we
just burn out and don't want any part of it. That's one reason why I gave
up on stock photography. Besides not making any money due to depressed
prices and technology warfare, it's hard to be excited about spending time,
effort and money shooting, editing, keywording and uploading stuff so
somebody can buy it for 67 cents of which I get a third. All so it can be
used to illustrate somebody's blog.

Why do I want a new camera? Is it for the "art"? Of course not. It's for
the money making opportunities. Does this make me anything other than a
photographer whore? I'll sell myself (time, effort, energy and sometimes my
own health) in exchange for money. The new camera is just a new set of
clothes, heels and makeup.

So, I've now turned this from being a "hack" to a "whore". I hope you feel
a little better now.  :)

Seriously, this is a perspective change for me. What do I want to
accomplish with my photography? Do I really give a rip about taking a
picture of another barn at sunset? Please! Weddings? Hey, everybody has a
price. Does this bright red leather skirt make my hips look big?

No, just like you, I'm trying to find greater meaning in this endeavor.
I've got something to say and I really don't care if people like the
message or not because until I get it out, it's just sitting in there
burning away. In my case, it's actually involves mixed-media, but that's
another story.

However, I'll toss another perspective out here. In my "day job" I've been
able to do something extremely unique and original once in two different
industries. Major technological shifts resulted from this creative vision.
I literally created an original methodology to deployment of a network
design which has since become the industry standard here in the USA. This
happened all within the last 18 months and is now the model which everybody
is copying. I would suggest that the underlying effort was 100% "art". I
consider anybody who is able to stare at a blank sheet of paper and come up
with something unique that has never been done before an artist. Being
creative isn't necessarily being an artist. But an artist must be creative.
An artist does push society forward. I would like to think that what I
created 18 months ago is pushing society forward. At least your new 4G
cellphone will thank me. Yes, it took 20x the effort/time to promote the
idea. One of the best compliments I got was when the VP of engineering for
one of the largest telecom companies in the world said "who is this guy and
why the ---- isn't he working for us?" It did get me a small raise and a
promotion.

What the challenge is for me, is to apply the same creative and original
mindset to my preferred medium. I'd rather do my creating in an Olympus OM
than Microsoft Office.

Bob, the question is this: Are you an artist that has successfully created
"art" in a medium not of your choosing? Is this what is bothering you? Just
like me, you want to do it through photography, but are you actually doing
it through other means without realizing it? I'm not unique. I know there
are many others on this list who are true artists in their own worlds. Just
because the resulting artwork doesn't take on tangible form in a way that
looks good hanging on a wall, or standing in the middle of a room or may be
seen by the masses doesn't diminish its value.

An artist needs to reinvent himself constantly. It's only art the first
time you do something. That's it. We need to kick over the easel, throw the
paints against the wall and take the knife to the canvas once in a while.
All good artists throw hissy fits. It's necessary to get angry with what
we've done and declare war on the customers.

If all else fails, chop off an ear.

AG
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