Here’s a video where I tackle 3 different paths to start thinking about where your photography prints fit the best: Retail, Wholesale, or Commercial? Which lane works best for you?
The Future
Photography is Dead.
What a title, huh?
I’ve got to admit, I’ve enjoyed the looks I get when I tell people about it, mostly since I’m so branded and known for my photography love and obsession. Once you dig a little deeper however, it all makes total sense. And, I’ve got to be real, the title definitely at least piques people’s interest. From a marketing standpoint, I think it has done its job.
But, the title, as well as the format, has its limits and I think it’s time to evolve. Like a Pokemon.
In basically every episode of this series, I’ve talked about the present day photography world and honest facts of what is happening. Some have agreed with my assessment, others have said it was too cold, and some people have stayed away because the skull on the cover of this podcast turned them off. That about sums up the things I make: You’re either in or out.
I started Episode one with the claim that we all fall into this desperation to be seen, and at the creation of this podcast, I was really struggling with that. Not all of us are built to have an audience of millions of people. Some of us will only reach a certain threshold of people who are picking up what we are putting down. This podcast has empowered me to embrace that idea. If we are just looking to get “big”, we often forget to ask ourselves “why?”.
I’m spending my time on this earth making stuff, and regardless of who’s paying attention, I’m going to keep doing it. I want to make the best things I can make with the tools I have at my disposal.
Photography is Dead is my gateway into another phase. It’s basically “Ok, let’s sit down and talk about the facts on the ground. The pieces. Here’s what’s going on.” And now, I’m looking to move into the phase of, “Ok, so we have assessed some stuff, so what’s next? What do we do with all of it? What does the future look like?”
Let’s be real, photography is in a weird place. There are no guarantees. Technology and the platforms by which we share most of our images at this point are changing day to day. One day, Midjourney made cool, weird, and eerie looking art. Within a year, it makes almost perfect photography. Change is coming sooner than we think.
But truthfully, I’m not worried about it. My love of holding a camera in my hands is propelling me through the future no matter what happens. AI can’t take that from me. Paired with a lack of desperation to have the masses view our work and approve of it, we are invincible to anything that comes our way.
That’s all photography boils down to anyway right? Our point of view.
Do you love creating? Do you do it for you, or do you do it for someone or something else? If you have basically no followers, and you’ve maintained your love of your craft despite that, you’ve won! That’s it!
What if you do photography for a living? Every business has the same rules: continue moving and adapting. The second we grow weary from that shows that maybe it’s time to move on. No matter if you do photography for a living or own a restaurant or run a law firm, the struggles are all the same. Day to day reinvention is the name of the game. It’s always been that way, and it will likely always stay that way.
The goal, in my mind, is to focus on our competition. And not the photographer down the street either, our real competition. Ourselves.
We are our own worst enemy. And we have to work to outdo ourselves every day. How are we growing? How are we getting better? The second we start looking at others as competition is when we lose the thread: We then give them the power to determine what we do next. Everything we do becomes a reaction rather than something we decided to do ourselves. With enough reactionary behavior, we lose ourselves and why we are doing any of this in the first place! We don’t dictate our lives anymore when we get to that place. Everything is dictated to us.
This is episode 48 of Photography is Dead. For a podcast with the word dead in the title, I’ve felt pretty encouraged by the end of making these. That’s right, we are moving forward. This feed will continue, but the title and format of this podcast is changing. You’ll get a new episode every week (rather than two, because it’s just a ton of work and I want to be able to spend more time on each episode) Some episodes will be these essay style episodes and some will be interviews and have guests. The ideas and ethos of this podcast will carry through into a better form, with, of course, my love of photography anchoring all of it.
The next episode will be Episode 1 of Will of the Future. That’s right, I have a notebook of goofy titles I’ve come up with over the years and that one has been sitting on the back burner for a while. I’m not going to explain the reference, but if you are around my age and watched Disney Channel growing up, you’ll understand. It’s super dumb, but that’s how I roll. It will be a semi-autobiographical take on asking “What’s next in the world of photography AND creativity?” I’ve got a lot of fun things planned out.
But this podcast will also be a B-Sides to my upcoming Youtube Channel plans. I want everything to work together in a common mission rather than just have a bunch of unconnected content I’m making. There will be a podcast episode companion to my first Youtube video, for instance.
The goal is to just continue honing, so that one day, maybe I feel satisfied. Not sure that’s possible for someone who makes stuff, but I’m gonna try.
Stay subscribed to this feed and go subscribe to my Youtube. (The link will be in the show notes) New episodes will begin to come out once a week on Mondays!
So, I guess I can say now that Photography is Dead is Dead! Long, live photography…is Dead!