Art, Fear, and Friends

My job as a photographer has changed a lot in the last year. It changed a lot in the year before that, and before that... If you go back ten years, the industry would be unrecognizable. Film to digital. Digital to recession. Recession to video. Every change costs the photographer money, and with every change (at least for the foreseeable future) comes less money.

It's tough...

and it's going to keep changing...

and it's going to keep costing more money...

and there will be more fish in the pond.

But in a way, what else is new?

When I was in college, the Mamiya 67 kit was financially out of reach. But the kids slightly older than me got a credit card, bought it and started shooting.

When I started assisting, the digital backs my employers had seemed impossible to afford, plus there was the software. But the kids slightly older than me bought DSLRs and started shooting.

Now that I'm starting to shoot, the industry is leaning toward a video/photo mix. It's a new way of seeing things, a tool so new that most clients know they want it, but don't know if they want to invest the money to pay for it.

Unlike last time, however, I'm adopting a decidedly optimistic outlook. I know video. I think in narrative story lines and in moving pictures. It's new for us as photographers, but it's certainly not new for us as consumers, critics, historians, or fans of cinema.

I was talking with some very good friends in the business, friends facing the same changes/obstacles/opportunities that I am. And it's through talking with them that I've decided to adopt this positive outlook.

I didn't choose photography because it was going to be easy. I didn't choose it to get rich fast or to become famous. Come to think of it, I didn't really choose photography at all. As cheesy as it may sound, I do believe photography chose me.

I'm willing and excited to go along for the ride.