I wonder if the notion of "popularity" has poisoned the well?
I understand people like Jasmine Star or Joey L wanting to be popular in their respective categories, there is money in it for them.
I wonder to what degree the makers of images in past were even known outside of a narrow band of knowledgable people? Their images had an audience and were popular in that they affected the hearts and minds of millions of people. But how well known were they themselves?
Ben, weddings are an interesting example because they are part of the fabric of everyday people's lives.
I started doing weddings because I had an audience … other art directors, designers, writers etc. in advertising. I loved the whole decisive moment humanistic approach to photography, and did it for myself. They recognized it as such, and asked me to shoot their weddings that way. I never set out to shoot weddings, I was asked to do them.
Flash forward to years later when I had made a business of it and started catering to a more diverse audience. Bad move. I should have let the business die a natural death.
Today, most insightful work with a more socially relevant depth, blows 5 miles over the audience's head. If they even recognize it, they don't really seem to care … I can give them what they want technically, but the very reason I ever even did that type of work no longer has an audience.
My last wedding is this July. I now price them so high no-one is buying … it's my way of getting out
It relates to this thread's subject in that I will also jettison a lot of "stuff' and get back to what made me happy before. I wouldn't go quite as far as shooting film … but the M Monochrome may see more action than ever before.
- Marc