I take part in a couple of forums, variously acrimonious, variously filled with dunderheads. Since I have ceased posting my own pictures online, for a variety of reasons, I periodically take a bunch of grief from people who want to see my pictures before they'll listen to what I am saying. Which, as an aside, is completely idiotic.
Anyways, I don't post pictures in forums any more, because it will lead apparently inevitably to trying to please blockheads on internet forums.
As proof of this, I relate this sad little tale.
I recently shot a little portfolio for the blockheads on a forum, with a barely submerged subtext of "Fuck You" (you get one (1) guess as to whether anyone perceived this). I got some nice comments from a few nice people, and the bitchy bitches ignored it. Possibly they correctly read the subtext after all.
Now when I have a few spare moments and am shooting for a long term project, I find myself drawn to happy little exercises. Little happy crowd pleasing shots that mean nothing, that say nothing, but which would do quite well on some god damned internet forum.
Arrrrg
And? Do the blockheads now listen to what you are saying?
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, one cannot buy them with pictures, even the ones designed to please them. Even worse: if your pictures are really the one they would like to have produced themselves, they will be jealous, see you as a competitor and become really aggressive.
I don't actually care what they thing (well, I *do*, which is the terrible thing, and sort of the point of this post) but I made the photos to shut the blockheads up. When you disagree with someone on a photo forum, they first decide that you are a terrible photographer, and then they want to confirm this by looking at your pictures. It makes them honk in a most irritating fashion when they can find none.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you prefer to shoot?
ReplyDeleteMy goal, always, is to shoot things that please ME. And these days, that means specific projects. As a more specific example, I'm out there shooting cyclists for a project I'm doing on Living with Intensity, Authenticity. I want a specific kind of a shot. And then on the way home I see a crowd-pleasing arrangement of wires on poles, against the sky, and shoot it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nothing shot. It has no purpose. It isn't new, it isn't interesting. It's a pleasing arrangement of lines which would probably get some upvotes or likes or +1s if I posted it in the right online venue. It's even good, in those terms. But it's not a shot I am interested in making, in general.
And yet, I shoot it anyways, because I know other people, people I do not know, people who are not going to give me money, or food, or clothing, or anything at all except a meaningless click of the mouse, would like it.