if i could do exactly what i wanted with my life i would...
- coach volleyball to kids, any ages ranging 9 through college age (only junior varsity if college)
- teach photography to students at a local high school
- be pregnant, a boy please or a hardheaded girl please.
- hang out in my studio and think about art, make photographic sculptures and installations
- take pictures with my students on the weekends (that high school also has a photo club)
- meet my artsy friends at cole coffee at 9 or 10 on the weekends and chat about the latest happenings
- buy a chaise lounge, lounge in it while reading in the afternoon sun drinking hot sweet tea
- get a big cute slobber dog from milo foundation to keep my older dog company
thats it for now. is this to much to ask? in the past 6 months i have had a couple of well paying freelance gigs working for photographers as an assistant of some sort, i didn't make a ton but enough to get a taste of what the money making life could be. i bought boots, on sale of course but they were over a hundred bucks, i love these things, i would have never spent that before - the ability to just walk in a store and buy what i want and not having to adjust my next months budget was kind of amazing. i've always had enough money, i would never call myself poor but to have money in the bank, savings, enough where you spend and don't really stress about it, pretty cool feeling. A feeling i find myself going crazy for now, trying to chase it down. the obvious choice for my lack of skills in anything but photography and pricey art education would to become a professional photographer and with that comes lots of work, luck, work and more luck, right? (stick talent in there if you want but you are kidding yourself, have you seen all the bad well paid for photos out there)
can i devote so much time and energy to something that makes me cringe a little. i try going on that photo editor blog and sucking it up . . . this blog is my future life, what these people talk about and struggle with, this is it. The problem is every time that blog pisses me off, i mean i want to puke at what some of these professionals are saying but i realized today that they aren't the problem, they aren't all bad, some bad photographers, some great and everything in between - the problem is me. what a bummer. so back to chasing the buck - how much of myself do i have to stuff down in order to get the buck? i think the biz world wants more of me on the shelf than i can muster which means i'm kind of screwed. as my savings dwindle and i prepare to blow the rest of it on a traveling photo project i hope to . . . well, i don't know . . . make art and hope for the best i guess. know any volleyball coachs or photo teachers that need help?
4 comments:
Hi C-
I don't see where the "i'm kind of screwed" idea fits into your equation. Lots of artists make income elsewhere and pursue their art. Roger Ballen was a geologist and then did his photos, thinks about photos, etc. Joseph Szabo taught art and photography at the high school level for his whole career and did the killer book "Teenage".
All of these goals sound pretty reachable. I don't see where the frustration is or why anyone would say that is too much to ask. But none of these goals are attainable by assisting a commercial photographer. It's a different path I think.
hear you there - "the buck" equals the big bucks not the "i can get by alright" buck - thats the obsession, frustration part - who makes money on a book? maybe that moon guy . . . did you make a cent on sex machines?
Oh, no...I didn't really make a direct profit on that project, though it wasn't really a crowd pleaser. Core Memory by Mark Richards sold a bunch, made a bunch, and the print sales are doing well...so it does depend on the type of book you are doing I'd say. But I do think books are often done to steer or raise the profile of the photographer, rather than income. Maybe I'm wrong...?
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