Profitable Sunrises
This is the year. I am no longer a professional photographer, I’m a hobbyist. An amateur. I believe the loose French translation of amateur is for the love of it.
Per the IRS, if you aren’t profitable in three of the first five years you’re in business the IRS can transition you to a “Hobby Business”. Now, I’m not complaining and if I am to be honest I really felt that this was inevitable for a myriad of reasons, but the most glaring one is marketing or lack thereof.
Of course, marketing in the broad sense is necessary if you want your stuff to be seen and possibly appreciated or desired outside your immediate location. We don’t live in small, somewhat isolated towns anymore where a simple sign above your entrance was all that was necessary to get business. In these times though, it seems that we monetize everything and often the most talented, most creative artists out there “fail” because of failure to regularly promote, talk about or hyperbolize themselves or their art. That’s my oversimplified take on it.
I had a moment the other day while watching YouTube. I said to my wife, “can you imagine going through a day without seeing some type of advertisement?”. It’s like telephone poles or cars or roads; so ubiquitous you don’t realize they’re a visual blight on the landscape anymore.
at least it’s not a cell tower, those are ugly
To the point, if I have to tell you why my work should resonate with or move you in some way, I've failed. And no, my stuff won’t resonate with everyone. That’s not my goal. And the thing about art is that as soon as you make art based solely on what the masses (or the wealthy) want, you’ve likely lost any novel expressive voice you had in the first place. If you look carefully at much of the work out there, it’s mostly mimetic. Novelty lasts days in the constant-consumption environment.
won’t make the cover of Adirondack Life
Why so negative Bob?
Actually, I am relieved and looking forward to making photographs and photographic art (that’s for the SOOC fundamentalists lol) when I want, how I want and for whom I want. And if I were to give advice to an aspiring photographer, it would be to make images that are true to you; if they resonate and sell, then great. If not, then great.
So back to the idea of sunrises.
They happen daily. Actually, they happen continuously. So why only photograph them during the cliched clown-vomit-colored moments? How about expressing dawn, pre-dawn etc. in all its variety and all its emotional register? A week or so ago I browsed my catalog and did a “sunrise” keyword search. Here are some old original and re-edited compositions as well as a few newer ones that I hope you enjoy or resonate with you in some way.
