Life Changes Art

While I am still doing a lot of photography work, and selling some stuff, I am not currently pursuing a career in photography. I love doing the work, and I love the learning process. But, so much of the business side of the art actually turns my stomach, and I keep asking myself what the point of it all is. I took up photography because it was something that I could do for my own enjoyment. That is what I have returned to doing. Having to all but give it away to be able to claim a sale kind of defeats the purpose of calling it a business. It is not the competition for the quality of the photography that bothers me as much as it is the competition for the sale of my work Everybody and the grandparents now have a boatload of pictures for sale on the internet. What business today would pay $1000 to lease the rights of a high quality/resolution photograph taken with a $25,000 Hassie when they can click a few keys on a computer and find almost the same photograph except at a much lower quality/resolution taken by a cell phone camera. If the low quality photo will do the same job for a dollar that the Hassie shot will for $1000 which purchase would you make? And, there is a commercial on t.v. (I saw it yesterday) that is advertising for photos taken by their clients for use in their future commercials.

And, if that ain't bad enough just take a look at what now passes for a photo studio in major shopping malls today. And, yesterday I saw a booth in a casino where the photographer (?) was shooting pictures via a computer program that was supposed to give the impression of a family riding on a magic carpet. All I could think of was a trailer house with a "talking fish" hung on the wall of every room. "Hey Jethro, dat's some damn fine art ya got der. Ya musta paid at least a nickel for't."