Well, it seems we have had some interesting discussions on the future (or lack of it) of photography as a career. I personally find the whining very unattractive, and somewhat arrogant.

I found two different approaches to discussing the difficult changes facing those of us who do art for a living. Whether a photographer or a cellist in a symphony, a sculptor or a fine cabinet maker, there are pressures that are making our lives more challenging. That is a fact.

And it is also hindering life insurance agents, real estate agents (remember when that was a hot career), and the guys and gals who work at Kinkos. Downward pressures everywhere we turn.

I would ask you to measure your expectations. What do you want from your career? To say one wants the outcome that is borne of decades in a business environment, but with the lifestyle availed of an artist seems a little, well, hysterical to me. One doesn’t get what one didn’t earn. No one gets a free ride. Ever. (Unless they are well connected Wall Streeters…)

If you are going into business as a photographer, or an oboe player, or a playwrite, are you making these decisions to fund your 401K, buy some real estate, get an apartment in France and hang out with models and actors? Really?

Man, do you have some disappointment heading your way.

Photography has to face the current facts that the cost of entry has been lowered by an incredible amount. There are simply few to no barriers of entry to being able to make a good/great photograph, and that changes the game. It changes it dramatically.

Anyone who is familiar with the economy of scarcity will understand what those changes are bringing. I promise to have more on this later, I don’t want to get too deep in this post.

Does it kill the game? Hell no. It simply changes it. There are too many successful photographers to say it doesn’t work anymore. And of course, the transparent whining that it is a terrible career for thee, but fine for me is almost insufferable.

Two different approaches to discussing these changes follow the jump.

Doom and Gloom at APE:
A Photo Editor presented this post yesterday:
Sobering Truths About Making A Career Out Of Photography

“Laurence’s conclusion: “I actually can’t think of a worse business than photography.” And the bottom line: “from a wealth-creation standpoint, photography is a lousy career.” Yikes!

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, I’m different, I’m going to become the next Dan Winters. Sober up for a second and read his post (here). The key here is not just making a living at photography, but a career: enjoy life, raise kids, retire and die happy”

Kim’s post had a bit less of a ‘woe is us’ feel to it than this would surmise, but the comments on APE are the true sad part. Commiserating, whining, and having such negative feelings about our industry makes it painful to read. But do read.

Juilliard Commencement Speech by John Adams

Mr. Adams is a contemporary art composer. You think the photography business is tough, try writing string quartets and symphonies for a living.

He is speaking to a room full of hopeful dancers who have trained for years, musicians who have trained for years and composers who have been writing for years. Decades in some cases.

Their competition? A market that has not that much going for it; Philly Orchestra going bankrupt, cities losing orchestras, not much sales in classical music. Singers will be embarking on a career that will continue to require lessons and study and auditioning. It may take them years to get into a position to start making a good living.

Musicians will go out with daunting classical music venues. Dancers will compete with kids who grew up through the local schools. “So You Think You Can Dance” will propel stars out of kids who rarely would have stood a chance before. “American Idol” will take a kid right out of high school, with no formal training and have him doing a number one country hit by fall.

So, what are they told by this composer who fights the good fight day after day?

“I should be doing the ritual thing and blessing you with words of wisdom and encouragement. But the truth is, all I really want to say is thank you. Thank all of you students who, against all odds and against all the pressures to do otherwise, have chosen to have a life in the arts. All the paradigms of success that we routinely encounter in our everyday lives—on television, in movies, in the online world, in the constant din of advertising, even from our friends and families—all these “models” for success and happiness American-style are about what is ultimately a disposable life, about a life centered around material gain and about finding the best possible comfort zone for yourself.

But by choosing a life in the arts you’ve set yourselves apart from all that and from a nation that has become such a hostage to distraction that it can’t absorb a single complex thought without having it reduced to a sound byte. Most people now, and particularly most people your age, live in a fractured virtual environment where staying focused on a single thought for, say, a mere seven seconds presents a grave challenge. (I mention seven seconds because a staff researcher at Google in San Francisco recently told me that 7.3 seconds was the amount of time that an average viewer stays on a YouTube site before jumping to another page.) You have grown up in a world that offers constant, almost irresistible distraction not unlike what the serpent in the Garden of Eden offered to Eve when he whispered to her, “check out them apples.””

Read the whole thing. Compare. Contrast. Who do you want to hang with? Who will make your day brighter?

Personally I fall on the side of encouragement. I love the light. I love the arts.

I may work until I die, but it is MY CHOICE… and I prefer it to stroking out on a golf course talking about cattle futures with a retired corporate mid-manager. OK!

(No offense to corporate mid-managers… we do what we want, and your choice is just as valid as mine.)

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