What about the Photography?

There is a new movement within the photography world that I believe has absolutely nothing to do with being a photographer. It is called "Social Media" and it's advocates would have you believe that you can not be a success without it. In fact, they go so far as to say that your photography should occupy only 10 or 20% of your time and SM and other forms of marketing should take the other 80 to 90%. Social media, is things like Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin and Myspace. It is your web site and your blog and anything else you care to do, in the public domain, on the internet. The new buzz word is Web 2.0 and if you aren't part of it you are bound to fail. It is all about "branding yourself and your business and not so much about your ability to create outstanding photography. It most certainly is not why I became a photographer!

As you can read, I have a Blog and I even have a Twitter profile, but that is about as far as I go. I do not have a web site and I have no intention of learning how to create one either. I will eventually get one, but someone else,someone whose job it is to weave such things, will be creating it for me. If that makes me a dinosaur and destined for the oblivion of the tar pits, I guess I am as good as gone. Frankly, I find Twitter to be a huge waste of time, except for it's ability to bring me numerous news sites from which to glean knowledge of my changing world, as well as story ideas. The site is cluttered with ready made and self proclaimed SM Gurus,who promise to bring you thousands of followers and tons of cash and an equal number of assorted snake oil sales people. Most of the day and night, the site is interminably slow and customer service is pathetic at best. On top of everything else, otherwise intelligent people,when not on Twitter,totally forget how to compose and express a thought.They write the most horrific abuses of the English language imaginable,simply because they can not think in 140 character segments. You see, the limit of your correspondence is a mere 140 characters,including punctuation.If you can not write a sentence with 140 characters,you should go back to grade school! Using accepted abbreviations is one thing,abusing the English language is something altogether different. There is no such word as "u" in the dictionary, nor will you find "ur" or "ppl"or for that matter,"pls". I do not object to a bit of poor grammar in the name of required brevity,but inventing words is childish drivel and perpetuating it, one of the many problems with education today.

Now I understand the need to be a business person if one is self employed, or, at least, the need to hire one to help run your affairs. I also believe in advertising and marketing,however,so did General Motors and Chrysler. What they most certainly forgot, was how to build automobiles that people wanted to own, at a price they could afford. I believe, that, that, was supposedly,their primary business.Mine, as a photojournalist or photographer,is to produce photographs that people want to publish,or to own and if I do not, I will end up exactly where GM is today,minus the government assistance. I can not do that by spending several hours a day reading inane Twitter posts and playing on the internet. In case no one has noticed, I tend to update this Blog rather infrequently. there is a reason for that and it has nothing to do with my internet marketing initiatives.

Unlike many of my peers,it seems, I have never been motivated by money. As long as I had enough to get by,I was content. I did not want to be the world's foremost advertising shooter or fashion photography wizard,making $10,000 a day and all the accolades I could amass. If I was driven by anything, it was the deep seated need to be creating images. I became a photographer to shoot,not to be a financial wunderkind. I still prefer to shoot over eating. At times,I shoot images that will never be published,or sold, in any way, whatsoever.Which I suppose, is a failing of sorts,but I shoot. It is all I have ever really wanted to do and the only thing that I am really good at. I have referenced the fact that photography is not what I do,but is who I am,before, but it is very true. To me, the sole purpose of being a photographer,is to create images,everything else is secondary,not the other way around.One of my most favourite photographers is Brit,Don McCullin. To me, he is the epitome of what a photojournalist should be. To this day, Don works in film and prints all his own stuff in his own darkroom. Admittedly, he rarely works as a photojournalist anymore, but he is still a working photographer,who steadfastly refuses to succumb to the world of the computer. Don and I will probably meet at the bottom of the same tar pit. At least we will be in good company.