Here's the new year's post. Are you ready for it? Can you handle it? Do you know what I'm going to say or will you be able to understand what I've said. Has it, will it, and can my words ever make sense to anyone else but me?
On a daily basis I wonder if I'm really a photographer. A real photographer. My style, if I even can claim a style, changes so drastically from one day to the next that I wonder if I'll always be a poor starving artist jumping from one project to another just barely "making it". And then I wonder too... is that's OK?
I mean, I love to shoot with my little point and shoot digital Canon Powershot that half the rest of world owns. I own a honkin' sweet professional Digital SLR but I hardly pull it out of it's bag. I switch the little setting on my camera to black and white mode occasionally even though most photographers will tell you that's the worst idea imaginable. I never use the flash, I let anyone "steal" my photos and I don't even know how to load a 35 mm camera. My shots are becoming more grainy and out of focus and candid than ever before. I'm breaking all the rules and not getting paid for it. My website's slackin', my fan base mostly centers around 15 year old girls thanks to High School Musical and I hate the stinkin' press. More people than ever have told me they love my work but I never believe them. What, where, and who am I in the photography world? A pioneer or a failure? A disillusioned hippie or an artistic genius? I have no idea.
Granted, I'm in the best position I've ever wanted to be in as a photographer - traveling around and seeing new things and trying to capture them but ... but ... something's not there ya know? Or maybe that missing whatever helps me be creative. I dunno. I'm not complaining, I'm not worried, and I'm not ever going to stop taking pictures; I just wanted to put my thoughts into words I guess.
So stick around. Apologies, but not so much, for a creative mind gone haywire. I don't know what I'll do, or what my next picture will look like, or even how I'll present it to you. But I appreciate you coming to my webpage . . . I've never had this large of an audience so many positive responses. So thank you.
Gotta go,
peace
-marc
..it isn't my fault if I was born 15 years ago.. but I don't like that movie...
ReplyDeleteI just like your photographs, and the way you take them.. I know nothing about you and that's ok, I just like the photos, they can speak!
I don't know actually why I comment here, I just like to do it!
bye
I'm 21 and I like your stuff. My cousin is a photographer and a writer. She's doing well and she still thinks bad about herself sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI think no matter what you do, you doubt yourself sometimes. Everyone does. Maybe if it gets bad enough, check out some therapy. It makes you feel better to say whatever the hell you want without any backlash. Just... Don't get a therapist with a bad haircut. They'll stare at you and tell you you're wrong.
You're amazing. Remember that.
Marc,
ReplyDeleteYa, I know I'm just a 17-year-old girl from lg.org, but I think it's important that you know some things.
Your photography is splendid. So what if your style changes? So what if you use a camera that half the world owns? There's nothing wrong with being original with a tiny Canon camera and a concept of spontaneity. Some people may get tired of looking at the same style over and over. I have a lovely professional camera... though I barely ever use it, because I love to just have a camera with me at all times... I never know when something might pop up! Therefor I carry a tiny little camera with me everywhere I go. You take wonderful photos that you should indeed be proud of.
As far as your fan base goes, from the other comments I think it's obvious that they aren't just people from lg.org. However, people at lg.org don't just like you because you're Lucas' best friend. First of all, you put up with all of us fangirls! Second of all, you have a great sense of humor. You also provide all of us with things most celebrity fans couldn't ever get. At the concerts, a good amount of us (including myself) are excited to try to spot you somewhere! I mean come on, you're Marc. You're an all around pretty awesome guy, that has some pretty awesome photography. We all appreciate you and everything you do.
Well... I'll stop talking now before I get on someone's nerves, if I haven't already... haha!
Stay safe, and be well, Marc.
~Johnna~
There is no such thing as a "real photographer." Photography is like any other art, and as in painting, music composition, fiction writing, directing, sculpting, there are no rules. It's why art is art. You see the world through your camera. You're still very young so your views, your moods are going to change day to day. Although, that may be more the artist in you than your youth.
ReplyDeleteI went to college for just about every kind of art there is and in the end they can't teach you much. It has to come from you. You don't have to be making money to be a photographer, certainly not the "press." I worked for newspapers for a long time and it's one of the most soul sucking jobs you can have, artistic wise. They take every thing you write and every picture you take and edit all the life out of it.
Life, by the way, is what I love about your photography. My own portfolio has become very much what I hope will sell, that is postcard after postcard and after awhile it all looks the same. But, scrolling through your photos, they are all in the moment. Some are quiet moments and some are, yes, unfocused and grainy and exactly like it was when you took it. They look like stilled memories.
So, to cut this far too serious rant short, no artist of any kind fully believes anyone else's opinion, and you shouldn't. Trust your own instincts, there is nothing wrong with the black and white feature (in fact the color accent is even cooler), I haven't had to load a 35mm since the turn of the century so don't even think about it, never underestimate a small camera (an elph can work magic in loving hands)and please, please remember that coconuts kill about 150 people a year. That last one's the most important.
-Sarah
yeah sure, HSM did help out and give you a bigger audience, but im sure alot of people would of still found your work by searching. you have a lot of fans that like you for your work, not just because your roomies with lucas. you have talent & your inspiring.
ReplyDelete