[Leica] Selling gear

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

R. Clayton McKee offered:
Subject: Re: [Leica] Selling gear

Quoth the Nathan Wajsman :

> In Weston's time the development of lenses and cameras was very slow,so
there was much less need and possibility to buy new stuff.

 

There's also that after he quit doing retouched portraiture, about 

the time he moved to Mexico, Weston spent most of the rest of his life
living hand-to-mouth; he records in his Daybooks on several occasions that
he had to pawn lenses to pay the rent so as not to be 

evicted.  Artistically he was a great success, but financially he seems to
have bounced back and forth between disaster and crisis for most of his
working life. Solvency was a sometime thing -- extra money for gear was
almost always nonexistent.<<

One of the failings of many independent freelance photojournalists during
the past 50 years has been the lack of preparing for the economic future, as
in the case of Weston. Not only he, but we did not prepare for the days of
old age and productivity of assignments. Which has left many shooters ending
up with a substandard livelihood toward the end.

The reason for this is.. Most are lousy business people and only want to be
shooting all the "so called exciting ways of life and death!" Aaahhh the
glamour of it all! :-) 

So they, we, me have not done what those with regular professional careers
take for granted.. "a prepared retirement fund for the olden days!" 

Just the way it is. however not in every case.

Over the years many photographers who were extremely productive in shooting
assignments in their younger years have found themselves displaced by the
younger set. "Oh yeah well you are kind of old aren't you? So we'll hire the
kid down the block who just graduated from photo school!" 

Besides he's really good with his COSTCO $39.95 digital camera and will do
the shoot for $39.95 a day."

ERGO: talent & experience doesn't count when the art directors and editors
will accept $39.95 images and fix it in PhotoShop!"

And that's what happens to some, actually many more than we know about
photographers. :-(

ted