Thinking about it

I recently offered two free prints to about 20 people. None of these people are photographers, and none of them are close friends - they are mostly people who work at three of my favorite hangouts. I've only know them from where they work. Out of those 20 people only 4 have bothered to pick the images they wanted - for FREE. I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I suppose it could be one or more of the following reasons:

1. Since it's free, perhaps they view it as something with no value and so, are not interested in taking the time necessary to pick the prints they wanted.

2. I have almost 300 images on my web site from which to choose, perhaps that's just too many for someone to wade though and make a selection of "my two favorites". Choices are hard for people.

3. I didn't put a deadline on the selection process so it's become a non-priority item, and while these 20 people actually want the prints, the process of choosing is a low priority.

4. They can't find an image that they want - even for free.

5. Since they're not framed, they don't really want to pick one and then have to get it framed.

6. It's photography and anyone can do photography; so who cares?

7. People don't really think of art on the web as ART it's just something pretty to look at on the screen for a few seconds and then they're done.

I sure there are other possible reasons. I've talked to a few people about it and the most common reason given is essentially: "Life is really hectic and I just keep forgetting", but then that might just be to save my feelings - hard to say. I don't resent the lack of effort on their part, but it is a bit depressing. Here's something that I truly BELIEVE will make them feel a bit better every time they see it hanging on their wall, and yet it's too difficult to make the time to choose. I suspect if I picked 20 photographers I'd have had much better luck. I did a similar experiment 3 years ago, but I had them choose one print from a notebook of prints and all they had to do was stick a post with their name on the print they wanted. I got 100% response, and they appeared to be all thrilled with the results. Three people actually bought additional prints, but then the Economy was in much better shape, and they only had 40 prints to choose from. So, is it that I asked them to choose from images on my web site? Is it that they're are too many choices? No Deadline? Again, hard to say - I suppose I could put together a much more controlled experiment but frankly I'd rather just spend that time doing photography.

In the current economy I have a very hard time selling prints, and an almost equally hard time giving them away; which makes me wonder why I don't just give it up. After about two months of thinking about it and almost deciding to sell all my camera gear, I realized that as much as I want people to be interested in my photography, I still do it more for myself than for my audience. So even if no one bothers to look at these images, I'm still driven to create them.

I may try this experiment again next year, only I'll hand them a stack of 10 or so prints, and ask them if they'd like to have one. I can then replace which ever print they picked and go on to the next person. I suspect I'll get at least 80% acceptance, perhaps even 100%. That will probably be my last giveaway, as much as I want people to enjoy my work, I'm already paying as much as I care to pay for the privilege.

I'm not a web addict, I use it for research, and shopping. I almost never just follow links to see where they go. That's due in more or less equal parts to: natural inclination, past experience, and focus.

I do occasionally browse around looking at photographers web sites. This is usually the result of researching something else photography related (sadly this is all to often equipment). I've noticed something that seems to be oddly common with photographers, either they don't say anything about their work, or they display titles, which more often than appear as "Untitled #1", "Untitled #87" or simply "Untitled".

I'm not sure if this is a sign of laziness, or a sign that the photographer doesn't spend time thinking about their own work. Abstracts are difficult, unless you treat them like an ink blot test, well even then they're difficult to title. My titles tend toward giving some hint of what made me photograph the scene. Sometimes I get lazy and title things with numbers, a venerable tradition but perhaps one that doesn't really tell the viewer anything. Generally though, the scene evoked a feeling and the feeling invoked a though that literally made me photograph it. Sometimes the emotion was warm and the though was fuzzy and the image was.... not nearly as good as it seemed at the time. Fuzzy thoughts do that.

A picture says a thousand words, the question is: What thousand words? As the photographer we have an opportunity to at least set the tone for the first paragraph. Each viewer will walk away with something a bit different, but I personally would rather they started walking in the direction I had intended when I made the image.

I've been doing photography related stuff for weeks, and it's really getting me in a creative frame of mind.

1. Listening to Lenswork Podcasts while driving
2. Listening to Camera Position Podcasts while working with photoshop or driving
3. Reading about photography
4. Listening to my favorite music
5. Looking at other peoples work
6. Thinking about what a photograph is - or isn't.

My current definition:

A photograph is not about the thing your taking a picture of - it's about the emotion you feel when you experience that thing. If you don't have an emotional reaction to what your seeing, there's no value in pointing a camera at it, you'll just end up with a photograph that has no meaning.

Photography is predatory; we want to capture something that moves us in some way and make it ours, to keep it. Photography is altruistic; we see something that moves us and we want to share that feeling. Photography is arrogant; we point our camera at something, we make a photograph, we are saying THIS is important, THIS is special, the viewer should pay attention to THIS.

In photography, we can take something away with us, with out taking anything away. Our goal is to elicit an emotional response, it is not make it possible to experience life later. For a time, I thought it was to get the view to experience the same emotion I had when I decided to make the image. Later, I realized that not everyone would have the same response even if they stood where I stood, and saw what I saw. Now I'm satisfied when I get any response. I photographed a scene of ice forming on a creek, I experienced joy in the motion of the water, and wonder in the transitory sculpture, created by nature, who didn't care one whit if it was ever seen by single soul. Sharing the image with someone, they felt the cold and were curious about how the ice had formed, not the same thing but maybe close enough.