Growing up, I had the typical high school jock mentality towards art. I never really saw the purpose of it. Being raised by a very alpha male father, I gravitated towards sports and manual labor. To me, art was something polar opposite of the things I was interested in and artist were not the typical crowd of people I associated with. I was so ingrained with this mindset that when I was recognized at a major art competition during my senior year, I chose to not to go to the ceremony in lieu of basketball practice. To me, it was just a drawing I was forced to do to get an A in the class.
Fast forward 15 years later and my mindset has totally changed. I guess that’s what happens when you get old. But now that I’m starting to embrace the artistic side of life, I’m being met with a very shocking reality…To me, it seems that art has become a “for profit” lifestyle adopted by many. I lived most of my life believing the stereotypes that artist just enjoyed creating and that money was not a driving force behind their work.
So when I first picked up my camera, I adopted that mindset to just create. My camera quickly became a stress reliever that took my mind off the long hours and constant pressure to succeed at work. Learning about lighting, exploring different editing styles, interacting with people, learning the controls of the camera, all just to create a few images that I was proud of. To hold a picture in my hand and “I created this” has been an amazing feeling over the past year. The initial reactions I received towards my creations were the typical “oh…that’s a nice picture.” But now those reactions are down right confusing to me.
-“Brotha your work is good! Why are you not charging people?!?!?!”
-“Brotha you can’t just give away free photos. That’s a lot of time, effort, and money you have invested. Don’t give it away for free.”
-“You’re stupid if you do free photo shoots.”
As I progress in skill level as a photographer, I am constantly met with comments like these which leaves me wondering, at what point is art no longer art but a business?
I’ve been blessed with a full time job that pays well enough to let me support this passion of mine. But along with that full time job comes the stressors of a full time job. For me, photography is a creative outlet. By turning it into a money making venture, I feel that I would be bringing on the stressors of another job: Paying taxes for the business, advertising, clients canceling, clients not paying, overbooking, etc. I get it that not everyone has the luxury of having a job that supports their passions and some people have to turn their passions into a business venture.
But what’s the strangest thing in all of this, is that I have not had one person, and I truly mean nobody, to 100% support my view of creating art solely for the sake of creating art. Everyone has been on the “you should charge” bandwagon. For me, that bandwagon sounds like it sucks. I constantly hear photographers complaining about clients no-showing, not paying deposits, or just causing all sorts of headaches. I see so many photographers offering multiple deals, specials, sales, or mini shoots in a race to the bottom of who has the cheapest prices.
NONE OF THAT LOOKS FUN!!!
But recently a fellow photographer from Wilmington broke it down for me perfectly. He showed me that there’s a big difference between client shooting and artistic shooting and most people often confuse the two. I have major respect for those photographers who take on client work and have figured a way to have their art make money for them. Keep doing your thing and don’t undervalue your work!
As for me….
I’m going to continue to create photos just for the fun of it.
Let me know what you think in the comment blocks about art and business mixing. How do you separate the two???