Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark, You state well the conundrum that many creative people, not only photographers, face. On the one hand is the argument that you should not worry about prostituting yourself if you have to, because in the end it's only your best work which will be remembered anyway. No one remembers Shakespeare for his worst plays, for example, only for his best. Therefore, do what you have to do to get by. On the other hand is the argument that once you begin to prostitute yourself by accepting assignments for the money only, you begin to contaminate everything else you do in the medium. Many writers, photographers, artists who go down this track never recover. How do you turn off the police mug-shot photographer (if that's not who you are) at 5 o'clock, for example, and reconnect with the photojournalist in your heart? Better to have a day job that's totally separate from photography, this view holds, so that you can keep your vision pure. I must say that I have still not resolved this one for myself. It's probably something that everyone must decide for him/herself. I just saw some mundane corporate headshots by Bruce Davidson to illustrate a new article in a computer magazine, so apparently he can get away with this kind of thing. I know there are others. On the other hand, people like Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Eugene Smith, Edward Weston, Garry Winogrand, and Robert Frank had a very hard time either (at various times in their professional lives) making ends meet while staying true to their ideals and/or subordinating themselves to idiots when they absolutely had to. Bruce Feldman Warsaw "When 'Mr. Hearst' sends me to Kansas City, America, I don't want to be a journalist, I want to be myself and express what I feel about things... I rejected the necessity of money and the attention that was paid to that path." -- Robert Frank - ----- > >Upon Graduating from a mediocre art training I faced the prospect: >Do I prostitute my Art going into photography? >Or do I go into something else to support my precious delicate >photographic sensibilities? >I decided that what I needed most to develop my craft and be happy in >life was to run film through my camera >and lots of it >on a regular basis. >That wasn't going to happen on my lunch break. >Mark Rabiner >