[...]You Know That Guy… I Hate That Guy. Am I Somehow More Successful Now? | LIGHTING ESSENTIALS For Photographers[...]…

It is the ME generation. It is the http/frog/llp, see what I just did about 42 seconds ago generation. It is the post “I love your work”, and then completely ignore that person, or bash them behind their backs two seconds later generation, because you know they can’t do anything for you generation.

ALL photographers have a degree of egoism. They want their work to be admired. Why not admit it? If I take a picture, I do not want someone to look at it (and least of all my client), to say “Good Christ, that is hideous!”. But then, you have this elitist crowd claiming they are just in it for the art, for the purism.

That is such crap. They write blogs, interviews, stating to hate anyone who loves their work, or who is doing a “vintage” picture, or has done something that has been done before. “Break new ground” they scream! Would Ansel Adams have wasted his time? I think not. He would have just taken pictures.

Hate? It is a waste of time. I see people on their Tweets, FB pages belittling someone, (and they might not even know who they are hurting), and I think: “Go take a picture and shut the h*ll up”. Or better yet, go on someone’s page who you have NEVER gone on before and leave a kind comment.

It is a better waste of space.

Peace…

In that case, its not about one-upping somebody but testing their legitimacy. The same way you’d ask medical questions from a doctor or recipe hints from a chef. The difference is that those two professions are licensed, while the photography field is a more wild-west Darwinian world. If you can’t answer a few basic questions about this then you’re strictly BSing. JJB was good to weed her out, NOT to knock down, but to expose her as a fraud!

But the rest of your blog I wholeheartedly agree!

One frustrating thing about the photo-blogosphere, where there’s so much product so readily available: Almost everybody’s work can be arranged along a “merit” axis, and almost everybody’s degree of celebrity can be arranged along a “recognition” axis. The problem is that, as a scientist might say, the two axes are weakly coupled. There’s a small sector of people who are deservedly famous for the quality of their work, and zone occupied by those of us who are deservedly obscure for the lack of same. In between, though, lies a huge but very fuzzy set of people whose work is better than their reputation, or vice-versa, and where to locate those individual data points is unavoidably very, very contentious.

I won’t necessarily diss a commentator for calling out someone as overrated; it’s good to remind people that a wide range of opinion is allowable. (Another quote, this one from seminal ballet critic Edwin Denby: “It is not the job of the critic to be right, but to be interesting.”)

I will say, though, that if you call out people for being overrated, I expect you also occasionally to draw attention to some whom you consider underrated; otherwise, I’m going to suspect your motives.

My momma used to tell me “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” People respond to that really well. And while we all have deeply held feelings, letting the negativity go can sometimes really help us focus on what is important.

This article has solidified in my mind the need to just be who I am, not worrying about what another photographer is doing or thinks of my work. I will focus on what the client needs and deliver to the best of my ability.

As I often say to my five children: Why don’t you just worry about you?