jakestangel:
I also recently gave Joao almost all my NYC ad agency contacts, happily. You want to know why? Cause he’s rad and I love his work and he’s got this sexy Peruvian accent thing going that makes me weak in the knees. But seriously, I do it cause I want to. I really don’t know any other way. How can you not want to help your friends? I want to see my friends succeed, and honestly, all of these things come back around. You can get on the bandwagon or not, but I assure you, you’ve got a longer distance to walk if you go your own way. Have some fun, make some friends, get to know some people, meld this career together with your life. So many of these photographers I speak of have turned into some of my closest friends, in part because we all can “get” each other so quickly and so well, in part because we’re all going through the same life pursuit, and in part because I feel like I can really get to know someone by looking at their work.
Besides the fact that you all (those who are seeking to become a photographer) should read those words (and the other parts concerning this topic) by Jake Stangel I need to say that everytime someone asks me how I would describe the differences between working in NYC and here in Germany is that this photographers-companionship is fucking not working over here.
And it really bumms me out, because all he is writing about is true:
it is easier and it is more fun! I have gotten more contacts and actual help from people living (or at least who have been living) someplace else than from photography friends here. Why is that? Why is that german mentality still that way?
I really don’t get it and it’s another proposal to you guys that you’re changing that.
I think we’re all ready for this.
You guys, I have to confess something:
I’m having a visual breakdown.
For the few past days I’ve been lying in bed, trying to cure that sneaky cold that has been working on me for way too long.
While doing that I was surfing the web, browsing through the latestet editorials, looking at photographer’s websites (already established and upcoming) and gathering ideas for the next year.
And you know what? I’m so sick of it.
It’s like there are only a couple of photographers out there. Everything looks just the same!
Is it because nobody realizes that or because nobody cares?
Oh, and don’t even start: of course I’m not the ultimate photographer who’s inventing a new photography. That’s not what I’m talking about. Nobody is.
But people tend to say photography is dead.
I don’t think it is and will ever be.
But it’s time to trust in its uniqueness and its ability to create something different.
I have found myself in the belief that I developed an unique style of taking pictures, maybe seeing the world, and I also have been told so.
And yet I’m struggling.
So there’s a wish I have for the next year:
stop taking the same pictures over and over and over again, make something consistent and take the risk to do and/or to be known for something you deeply care about.
And this is what I am aiming for.
