Self analysis and the change in photography (a retrospective)-FEAR!

You know?  I’m proud to be able to say I’ve been a working professional photographer for over 15 years.  For all of this time it has been a dream job (most of the time).

But there is no time to be complacent, I’ve been in an industry that has changed about as much as it is possible.  One thing is for sure, the landscape is so different, it may as well be on the moon or even farther, Mars maybe.

I learned this craft on film, and without using polaroids, you never really knew what you were getting.  There is a generation of photographers that curse this new generation of digital artists, some people don’t like to call them photographers.  Manipulation and editing is so easy these days.  I guess I’ve had my own rants from time to time.

With time, the industry has confused me greatly, I have periods where I don’t pretend to understand, bu the fact is, photography is more creative, more experimental these days.  There have always been creative and experimental photographers of course, but never (in my humble opinion), as much as now.  There are a lot of exciting photographers out there.

So what does this mean to me?  Well, I’ve essentially been a staff photographer for 15 years and although this has been an excellent job, that I have enjoyed beyond measure, however as this contract comes to an end, the future seems daunting.  I want to do better, I want it to be an exciting future, with promise and adventure.

How can I do that?  Well firstly I want to break free of the fear that ‘you are only as good as your last picture’.  This is utter bullshit, and forces a mentality of restriction.  I intend to make loads of mistakes, try new genres, new styles, new subjects without fear of failure.

I still have time… we all do…