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ART: Too Many People Already Do What I Want To Do.
I just read this really good article on media.com about reasons for artists to just create their art and to deal with doubts, which, most of us do, all the time... except for the perfect people. “Too Many People Already Do What I Want To Do.” by Sean McCabe "Do you ever feel like there’s too many people doing what you want to do? We can easily become overwhelmed in a world of 7 billion people and wonder if any thought is truly unique. Are there any original ideas anymore? Who am I to even try and why should my contribution matter? How could I compete? Who would listen to me? What sets me apart? What’s the point of even creating? Before you know it, you’re caught up in a whirlwind of doubt. It’s no wonder: we see the best of the best on a daily basis. The very best of the world is brought before us every day. You follow the people who make things you’re interested in, right? What this is doing is creating a Bubble of Awesomeness. You’ve created a pseudo reality for yourself. What you see in your feed on a daily basis isn’t a representation of the world as a whole because most people don’t create. But you don’t see the people who don’t create because they’re invisible. You only see the tiny fraction of people who actually stick their neck out there and make something. So few people are actually doing things and actually creating. Why compare yourself to the 0.0000028% of people who do things you consider amazing instead of the remaining 99.99999% of the world? If you have a desire to do something, then do it! It doesn’t matter if other people are. Here’s five reasons it’s ok if you feel like too many people do what you want to do:..." Follow this link for the rest of the article! Dec 09 15 11:26 am Link Some random thoughts provoked while reading your link - not necessarily to refute or support what the other guy said. I think he raises some issues that are good to ponder. I don't think he has a very clear grip on what he wants to do about the issues he is trying to define and address. My thoughts are often nonlinear or fragmented too. FWIW, here's another random thought dump from thinking out loud. Lots of this comes from my career of product development, selling at trade shows, marketing strategy and advertising my products. I think it applies to what artists and photographers do too. I like the subject of Udor's thread. --- ORIGINALITY, CREATIVITY AND CROWDED MARKETS In no particular order ... Probably because the person who feels crowded wants to do what too many other people are already doing. That's the opposite of the title of this thread. It means that "new" is only new to him or her from their own recent discovery or perspective. They are already late to the party. --- Many people who complain about markets or industries being "too crowded" just got here yesterday and complain about too many new people joining tomorrow. It's a way to complain that their own lack of sustaining success is because of someone else getting in their way. Often their own "new idea" should rather be recognized as inspiration by seeing someone else's idea, then internalizing it as if it was their own and becoming confused about that. A few people lead. Everyone else follows. Lots of followers think they are leaders, but they simply got on the back of the bus like everyone else. There's nothing wrong with that, but we should recognize it for what it is. People can become "artists" by learning the technical skills necessary to copy the works of the Great Masters in exquisite detail. Originality is not a prerequisite or requirement for being an artist. For example, look at the talented artists who can reproduce exquisite and moving renderings of Mozart, etc., without ever writing any original music of their own. No way would I want to deny them the title of "artist." The extent of most creativity for most people is to copy someone else or replicate and average together the ideas of others. It's a rehash or a remix. --- Replication can sometimes create fresh ideas that are unexpected and that don't resemble the idea it was originally meant to copy. --- If we are too original, then we have to educate our audience or customer base to recognize what we are offering. [Meaning, in the case of designing things for people to respond to. Some artists explore for themselves and what others think or do is irrelevant.] If we can catch the very beginning of what is developing as a trend, then we can ride the wave. Sometimes if we are astute or lucky, we catch the wave nicely with our "semi-original" ideas or our trademark interpretations of what is developing without being responsible for creating the wave in the first place. Lots of others struggling to compete with the same products or in the same industry wake up too late and miss the wave altogether. Most people who copy are usually already at least two steps behind. The only way they can compete is by ripping off more people faster, in bigger quantities. Then they have to try to splash their name or their product in front of those who actually spotted the developing trends for themselves. Those with the original ideas may not be as good at playing the more crass and brutal game of stealing ideas and copying other people by those who do not have as much vision or imagination themselves. Original artists can often be timid or worried about the acceptance of what they do by others. Many artists can be conflicted or not equipped for brazen competition. As a consequence their good ideas are often a target of opportunity for more ruthless marketeers or charlatans who pretend to be artists, but who are really opportunists who present the ideas of others as their own. --- If we are intending to start new markets to punch, or to catch developing waves, timing is critical. Surfing is not a bad analogy at all. Dec 09 15 12:07 pm Link Click Hamilton wrote: Yeah, that is something that is absolutely correct! Dec 09 15 12:17 pm Link I think there's a lot of truth to what he wrote, I also think there's truth to the core concept. I love shooting beautiful women nude in studio on large format B&W film. I still do it, primarily for myself, but today, there are millions of people doing it, some far better than me. I spent a year working with a consultant, going over every image I ever shot, tearing out inspiration photos, building huge mood boards that covered every wall in my home (not to mention installing an 8' white board that is crammed with notes). I wrote multiple creative briefs, tested concepts, learned new working methods and put together a world class team of creatives that could support my voice. Eventually, I was able to drill down to who I am as an artist, not in a general sense, but in a few key specific areas. That voice, that is uniquely me, even if the mechanics of it are not that unique. I've then spent the past year experimenting with various ways of implementing that voice, that vision. It took a while, but I've nearly completed the first phase of it and am now working on the second. In 2016 I will add back in my personal work, including studio nudes and other film work, but this time it will contain this silver thread that is me that, hopefully, runs through it all. At the end of the day, I think that's all you can hope for. Lastly, I don't think this is new. There were always many people doing what we wanted to do, but pre-internet we just didn't see it all. Dec 09 15 12:38 pm Link udor wrote: In that case, the punch has to come from the presentation and capturing attention. It comes from other elements that connect the customer or viewer to what the pretty girl and dress is helping you to sell. Dec 09 15 01:12 pm Link This is a spectacular thread! Thanks, Udor, Click and Giacomo. I'm learning. I'm especially impressed to read of the effort Giacomo put into finding his way. Dec 09 15 02:13 pm Link Let me see if I can summarize the article using the techniques McCabe recommends: "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." so… "go forward, move ahead, try to detect it. It's not to late to whip it. Whip it good." Dec 09 15 02:49 pm Link Slack Dragon wrote: That's good Dec 09 15 03:05 pm Link I think I may be one of the other 0.0000072 percent. Dec 09 15 03:31 pm Link I would modify point #4 - 'You have your own unique voice.', to read, 'You have your own unique hunger, desire, need.' Look at your horizon, and consider what you wish was there, and then do that, fill that hole. If you are lucky, then other people have the same wish. Regardless, you have made your horizon wider. Dec 09 15 04:49 pm Link This kind of discussion has gone on for ages, but I find that it is much worse these days. I blame social media. Ten years ago, nearly ever students had the idea of putting tape over someone's mouth to make a statement. The really heavy-handed ones wrote something on the tape. And as a student, that's not a bad thing. I made those photos too, and always reminded my students of that when I told them it was cliché. Just because YOU never did it doesn't mean that it has never been done - and my version was just as cliché as theirs. But the important thing was that students were coming up with ideas, and actively thinking and problem solving. Today, I see so many students that spend a week looking at images on Instagram or Tumblr, and then they only have a couple days to shoot their project. Some of them get so wrapped up in ideas and uniqueness that they decide that the only thing they can do is some super-complicated shoot that they couldn't possibly finish on time, and I get bad or incomplete work. I have at least one student each semester that gets so Google stoned researching ideas that they never make work at all, because they think they can't possibly do anything new. Some of them are clearly using that as an excuse to not make work at all - as in, 'why bother? It's just going to be derivative.' They use the images out there to justify their laziness, and it becomes a cycle. That hardly ever happened a decade ago. I still had students that made incomplete work or failed to do it entirely, but it was because they were lazy. We have this wonderful ability to see all this work and learn from it; but just as people spend more time on Facebook than Wikipedia, the tools at are disposal are used for metrics, and not education. Just go make work. After you made work, THEN worry about whether or not it's been done. I remember shooting a noir narrative a few years back,and I used a burning candle as an indicator of the plot progression. I lit a tall taper, and took several photos as it burned down, and interspersed them in the work. I stole the idea from the string in the Sandman comics. It was terrible. So painfully cliché. 'Oh look, the guy just got shot, and now the candle is out,' terrible. But it turned out that using just one of those images worked really well. So you never know. In summary ... whenever somebody gets too out of shape about everything having been done before, I bring up Picasso. We all know that Picasso was one of the greatest painters of all time, and possibly the most respected during his own lifetime. And we all know Cubism, and many of us know that it was heavily influenced by African art. So we already know he didn't pull Cubism out of his ass as a fully-formed concept. He worked with it until it became what it is. But many people are unaware that there is a missing link there. Georges Braque was the one to come up with the idea initially, and he worked on it for a couple years before Picasso jumped on board, at which point they developed the idea together. Today Picasso is a household name, and Braque is not. Kind of tells you how important it is to be the first person to do something, doesn't it? Dec 09 15 05:32 pm Link I'm with Lionel Dobie on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoTJ_h6XCy8  If you want to watch the entire thing, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xm8pv4 … s_creation Dec 09 15 05:40 pm Link udor wrote: who cares, just do it udor wrote: I wish I could stop. Dec 09 15 05:46 pm Link I think it is more an American idea that people need to be original. I went to college in America and many students had that concern. My photographers that work under me now mostly think of photography as a craft rather than feel they need to make something original. I think it helps keep things in better perspective for them. They have a more realistic outlook on photo video making. When I was young a Chinese man laughed at the idea that Americans think they are original because they all wear jeans. He was right, how does 300,000,000 people wearing jeans think they are original? Being original is overrated. Dec 09 15 06:08 pm Link We are unique, just like everyone else. Dec 09 15 07:39 pm Link I'm changin' my name to Helmut S. Dali . . . and paintin' nekid, six foot women holdin' melting clocks . . . anyone done THAT yet . . .  SOS Dec 09 15 07:47 pm Link I actually never quite understood the "there are too many other people doing this!" Attitude.. but I'm one of those photographers who couldn't fit in and is stuck standing out and recogniziable, even when I try (and I tried for years and years!). It isn't until recently that I started looking at the work of others, to use as inspiration for myself to improve/see how I'm doing as compared to others. It's an endless cycle that really never turns off. Each individual has their own vision and preferences. We all create in different ways- and our art gets bought, or we get hired, specifically for our vision. As artists we need validation to be able to keep going, otherwise we shoot ourselves in the foot . Or at least it happens with me, and others here locally. The article works nicely as a motivation to put yourself out there and see, but at the same time fails to mention that few succeed and many fail. Then again, I'm a realist! All we can do, is try and see... Dec 09 15 08:38 pm Link sospix wrote: CLOCKS, no. Dec 09 15 08:39 pm Link Click Hamilton wrote: and just like the children of Lake Wobegone. we are all above average. Dec 09 15 09:38 pm Link Zack Zoll wrote: You were saying? Dec 09 15 09:51 pm Link martin b wrote: Here we go again... Dec 10 15 12:13 am Link It is hard to make your mark. Except in the case of SOS, it's all been done before. As a creative you try to put your spin on something that's already been done. That is to say, not to copy other work but to show the work from your point of view. Invent a new way to say something that's already been said. For years I tried to make my mark in aviation photography. For years I idolized Phil Makanna. I bought his GHOSTS calendar every year. I know how to make an airplane look good but so do thousands of other photographers. Since joining MM ten years ago, I've been working to make that iconic photograph of a model and so have hundreds of other photographers here on MM. I'm a little fish in a very big pond. Do I stop trying? Never! Do I get frustrated? Often. Do I want to give up? Sometimes. But I just keep plodding along doing the best that I can do, trying to improve each time I shoot. I guess the hardest part is not getting very little recognition for all of the hard work. Even so, I keep doing what I do: Shooting the next airplane or car or model or landscape. What ever strikes my fancy. I just keep holding out hope that someday someone will look at my body of work and conclude that I was a pretty good photographer after all. Thanks for your time... Dec 10 15 03:56 am Link R.EYE.R wrote: It was a Hentai joke. Clocks. Cocks. Dec 10 15 08:11 pm Link Frank Lewis Photography wrote: And that's what it's about. Dec 10 15 08:20 pm Link Click Hamilton wrote: Of course, Click... I am aware of all of this! Dec 11 15 12:16 pm Link udor wrote: The right contacts will probably go further than ability... Dec 11 15 01:10 pm Link I think nothing is actually new if it is about serving others, who expect see better or different reproduction what is familiar to them, not exactly new. Based on this point, when creator ignore others and do his own stuff, by himself, for the sake of his own feeling and self expression, the chances of doing something that set him a part of others creation is higher, as well the chance of set himself a part of the market too. As I was told in an other topic. I sell more in flea markets than in internet or even in galleries because in flea markets people actually see me, they can know me. They buy the print because of the person who made it and who sells it. Not because of the print itself. As said above, contact is the key to most oportunities in any area. Even to find avarege jobs. There is only one job I got in my life that I didn't need the help of a contact. That was in McDonald's. This is the reason people goes to NY, Milan, Paris, London, where the chances to get in contact with the right people is much higher, since these cities is where galelies, publication offices, studios, all concentrate. I was talking to a man in the flea market last weekend, telling him I haven't sold any of my prints in the last 3 days in flea markets. He told me that I have to sell other thing then. I said I can't sell other thing I am a photographer. Then he told me to photograph popular images that sells. I told him other things that sell don't give me joy, I have a job I don't enjoy for the money sake already. Dec 12 15 03:25 am Link So many eloquent replies. I'm a simple man. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke! Dec 12 15 04:47 pm Link Jules NYC wrote: This was so good i watched the whole thing, loved it I've been painting since i was a child and now large format 4x5 median range. Dec 12 15 06:55 pm Link D a v i d s o n wrote:
Dec 13 15 02:52 am Link OP....SURE. As a social documentary photographer my preferred method of operation was to ‘Meet on the street…shoot at the home.’ I would meet people that interested me on the street or otherwise and then set out to photograph them at their homes. Many of my best images came from this way of shooting. I would never know what I would find at their home. Well, in 2015 that approach does not produce for me any longer. so I had to reinvent myself. nsfw https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/201 … -the-home/ With 2 billion cell phone cams out there it is very tough nowadays for photogs as well as artists in general. https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/201 … an-artist/ How do I set myself apart from the crowd? I can't say, I don't set out to do it, I just seem to do it by evolution and keep plugging away at it. I am only photog # 3 in the history of photography to do a large project with infrared flash. I am the photog #1 in history to make a book on digital infrared flash photography. nsfw https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/201 … ss-update/ Piercing Darkness is under joint consideration with my other project The Americans...60 years after Frank for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship. When it comes to the stuff you guys do I am nothing special. This is the only glam project I ever shot in nearly 50 years of pushing the button. nsfw https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/201 … rag-queen/ So without any practice to speak of, I am not going to produce anything great in that area. Still, I can produce some basic work in the glam area. But in my own specialties candid / documentary / street I can stand out from the crowd. I'd tell you to find what your good at and then do it.! Dec 13 15 04:40 am Link Your drag queen link raises as interesting point. I was recently directed to a local wedding photographer's site that also featured a drag queen project. For starters, I have no idea why it was on the site. There were five or six galleries of weddings, senior photos, babies, and other family-friendly images all shot in the typical style, and then a gallery of jewelry and other product, and then this one gallery shot like a photojournalist. If the style were similar to the bread-and-butter work, then maybe it would be a good way of showing that this photographer is willing to photograph gay or alternative couples. But since the images weren't in the usual style, I can only assume that they were there because this photographer was proud of them, and wanted to show them. This is where 'everything has been done before' actually matters. It's not 1970 - even my grandmother has seen a bunch of photos of drag queens by now. So the idea isn't exactly breaking new ground. And yet, I still see images of drag queens here and there that are really good - so clearly there is room to explore that some more. But these were not. They were exactly the same photojournalist-style drag queen images I expected to see when I clicked on the link. If you're going to make good art, the fact that it has been done before is irrelevant. Cover songs are a perfect example: they are, by definition, all about redoing something that has already been done. And some of them are excellent. I bought Ryan Adams' cover of Taylor Swift's 1989, and I love it. Some of the songs, like Bad Blood don't even sound like covers. I know the Swift song pretty well, and I still think Adams' version sounds like he wrote it himself. But if the finished work isn't good, that's when the fact that it's been done before comes into play. If the work is boring, then the only thing going for it is the concept; if the concept isn't original, then there's nothing good to say about it, aside perhaps from technical skill. I also recently bought an album from The Sword, where they covered a ZZ Top tune. They did a really great job with it - but it sounds like the original. Better production value, but the same damn song. I like The Sword, but there was no real reason to record this song. In my head, it's not even a cover - it's a remaster. That tune goes in the ZZ Top folder. Of course, you can't tell if the finished work is going to be any good until you make it. So you have to just make the work, and hope for the best. And then comes the hardest part, that almost every artist struggles with, myself included: you have to sit down and objectively judge your work. You need to determine if it is actually good, or if you just want it to be good because you fell in love with the idea, or because you spent a long time on it. If the work is good, nobody gives two shits if they've seen it before. If the work really is good, people will be excited about the opportunity to experience it again. We have a silent quality barometer in my advanced photo classes. I rarely draw attention to it, but some of the more astute students have noticed it on their own. If you have a very strong image, people will barely spend any time in critique discussing the technical aspects of the work. If the technical aspects are discussed at length, it almost always means that the idea was bad, or that the work is boring. If we get into pointing out stray hairs on a portrait, that means the work is REALLY boring. The technical hardly gets discussed not because nobody cares about craft, but because nobody minds - there are much more important things to look at and discuss. Dec 13 15 06:32 am Link Here is the answer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vfI0hC-I2_8 Dec 13 15 11:01 am Link As one of my friends who is a quite a renown painter once said: "I have created everything I could in my head. Why should I bother to re-create it in reality?" ..and I believe him. PS Zack Zoll wrote: I know. I was just responding in "Yes, how can I help you?" manner... Dec 19 15 06:28 am Link Shoot what you want. Some will like it, some will hate it, and most won't give a shit. Get better, and the ratios will change. Dec 19 15 09:57 am Link Zack Zoll wrote: When I was in college, studying writing, the professors basically didn't like any work that dealt with anything other than the culture of middle aged or elderly people, written in this boring, bland way. It could be descriptive, just not too descriptive. If you wanted to make a good grade, your fictional work had to have an observational tone, without a hint of feeling or bias in it. It was weird, because we weren't studying journalism. We were studying creative work. Dec 19 15 10:46 am Link sospix wrote: Dec 19 15 11:50 am Link Here's what you need, Udor. Call the Art Disposal Service on those other guys. Art Disposal Service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJwLtIw_jU4 Dec 19 15 12:43 pm Link |
