When I talk to creators and survey the industry landscape, I see a zillion creators trying to have all their work liked by all the people. This comes from our social animal DNA, but it’s the completely wrong approach to success – whether that be measured by your work being licensed, sold, etc, or by getting hired, shown, talked about, displayed, whatever.
Simply said, by trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one, especially not yourself.
But fear not (or fear less, perhaps). The answer is simple.
1. Shoot what you love.
2. Relentlessly share that work.
3. Repeat.
People can smell whether you love what you’re shooting or not, love what you’re promoting or not, love what you’re doing or not. So you might as well effing love it for real. It’s all you’ve got.
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So quit with your shifty eyes, looking at what everybody else is doing. And do your own shiznit. Yes this means you. If your work is priced…… appropriately, be it fine art, commercial, editorial, wedding, whatever, all you need is 10-50 people each year to dig what you make. That’ll come from doing what you love, and that will make for a great year. Of all the damn people you have access to with the innernets, there are 50 people with money who like what you do. Of the 1000 or 10,000,000 who look at your site, your book, your whatever, those “likers” can be a pretty low percentage. Bet on it.
Chase, I have been saying this for a while. I KNOW that it is one of the keys to success. I have yet to devlop my own distint style. I am still somewhat new at this and busy trying out different styles/techniques to see what I like best. But I find that some of my most talked about shots are the ones I did for myself and pretty much said “screw it, I don’t care if everyone hates this” and then did some off the wall technique. You are right. It is in our DNA to try an please everyone all the time. It’s learning how to let go of that which is the tricky part!
So needed to hear that today. Thanks. I’ve really been struggling with this! Just have to find a way to stop caring about what everyone thinks and start shooing what I know will work – for me. Thanks again.
Ha, so very true. I wrote a blog post “Lacking Originality” a week or so ago after reading a DuChemin rant on a similar topic. The post went kinda crazy and a good debate ensued on artistic originality and such. Some people are out there creating truly original and interesting stuff, plus they don’t give much of a crap who likes it. I’d agree though that a lot of people need to stop trying to photograph what they think people want to see (ie. the crap that seems to make Flickr explore etc etc. puppy dogs, cats and rainbows) and start making photographs which actually express something personal to themselves.
I think a lot of folk are starting to speak out in this manner, probably a backlash against the tech driven photography community at the moment. We need to get back to the craft and the image, screw the equipment.
About thirty years ago I worked on a VW Rabbit commercial. The spokesman was Reggie Jackson. After hitting the ball out of the park, he turns to the camera and says: “I drive a VW Rabbit because the only person I have to impress is me”
Words to live by then, and still true today.