Photography Post Without a Name
This is WAY back in my teens, but there was a group who had a “song without a name” on an album. Naturally, I can’t remember who that was, but of course I remember the fact that the song was called that. Go figure. 
Yet, it seems fitting after a day like this when I’m sitting in front of my computer after a 14-hour day at my day job, knowing I need to be fostering what I LOVE to do, and unable to think of a single thing to write. Not being able to put two words that make sense together is utterly unsatisfying.
So I decided to write a few thoughts about the challenge that many of us photographers face. For whatever the reason unable to pursue what we love to do full-time, we resort to “the day job”. Which ideally can feed into other things we are great at, but inherently they will inhibit the artistic end of things. There’s “the boss”, the demands of the job itself, and the bending-over-backwards act to keep it all together.
Last year around this time I read an interview with this guy – a German photographer by the name of Hartmut Schwarzbach, who was on the short list for the 2008 Sony World photography awards.
He described the majority of the amateur photographs as “tiring and average”. My guess is that from the way he was talking, he would probably describe anybody’s work that way who isn’t pursuing photography full time, for whatever the reason. Well, Hartmut, good for you that you have the time and the backing – and success – to do what you love full time. I bet it was hard-earned. BTW, I didn’t think your photographs were all that great, either. I’m likely being sarcastic and unjust here, but so were you.
Rather than dismissing other people’s work like that (and I don’t even consider myself an amateur), what are YOU doing after realizing YOUR dream to help other people – including those kids you photographed on that dump in the Philipines – realize THEIRS? Did these guys all get a camera from you? And if that answer is “yes”, would their pictures fall into the category you so easily dismiss as “tiring and average”?
In the meantime, I’ll post some more of my stuff, if you don’t mind.
