" (Of course many here probably make a living at various forms of photography, I would say those are exempt from this exercise.)"... N80
I think you're right!
However, as I used to do that but now don't do anything to earn a living, just do my best to keep hangin' on in there, I may be qualified to hold a view too...
Insofar as the pro side goes, I think Keith was very accurate in his statement: " because I have to." That's why I took it up professionally in the first place. It's the same reason that usually makes me fall back into line despite the self-questioning that comes to me every now and again: it's in the DNA.
But the problems that I outlined, that gave rise to N80's thread here, remain, too. For many people their sense of photographic development and identity is never established in their own mind, mostly, I'd imagine, because they don't get the time to do enough of it to be able to stand back and see themselves in the mirror of photographic life, so the thing becomes a quest to catch up with a little red carrot at the end of the string before their nose. Well, work at it for a lifetime, and after you've caught and eaten that carrot, there's not a heap left to drive you forward other than momentum or habit. And that pesky DNA! I can't tell you which is the strongest factor; I don't know.
Part of the problem is that photography covers so many fields. Some are totally about self, some not as much and demand external co-operation in order to be possible. I couldn't do my professional stuff alone: I need models. As bad, without a client there would never have been much justifcation for spending the huge sums of money that were involved in that, but as I couldn't have financed much of it on my own, it's pretty academic. And even if I'd been a rich guy, it wouldn't have been much good: the best models also need motivation beyond the pennies: they are driven by success and prestige too, which is why Vogue et al. get away with fiscal murder. It's one of the reasons why some girls would not accept stock shoots. All photography is not equal.
Now, as amateur, it's being said that the world's wide open for new experiences, and for many that's true. In fact for most people it's true, regardless of status.
The question, of course, is one of relative value. Is what you do for yourself as worthy the doing (in one's own estimation) as what one was doing professionally? When the answer isn't a positive one, life gets a little awkward! So awkward that I sometimes feel I'm running on habit, just like a mechanical rabbit.
"If, however, the goal is to provoke emotions, even if only in ourselves, capture and preserve a moment, even if only for ourselves, than the opportunities are limitless."
Slobodan mentions the expression of emotions through photography; that's a fine target, but I'd suggest it's seldom achieved, not due to skill levels, but due to the fact that so much photography has nothing to do with emotion, but everything to do with pretty. St Ansel did a version of that throughout his 'artistic' life by incorporating print exaggeration. But what the hell did he say? What the hell did that split rock ever say? Nothing! It just is. Just as is the opportunity of tripping on a loose flagstone and breaking one's head and dying on the spot. Shit happens. Let's not even think about buses or Hernandez.
Preserve a moment. Now you're talking! But that's not always what one is doing: I shot a portrait of my wife when she was about forty-two or so, just for an International Driving Permit, and today, it remains the most valuable possession that I have. It was never intended to be anything but utilitarian. I never gave it a thought back then - didn't even keep the negative - but today it's come to mean something very much else. Where the art, where the emotion? In this instance they don't count.
Hence, as I questioned in my earlier post, is there any point in just doing what you know you can do? A rut is a rut is a routine. How many different ways are there of making pretty much the same goddam shot, over and over again, however well you think you may be doing it? It's been said of, as well as by many well known photographers and musicians that they spend their lives making the same photo and writing the same song ad infinitum. Saul Leiter did that, Adams did that and I am still doing that, not to mention several other snappers on LuLa too. Is it truly worth the time to us, or are we doing it from habit, or so as not to have to think or to do something else we'd rather not face? You have no idea how many things that I find to do before I run out of excuses to avoid housework.
;-)
Rob C