Nobody cares about your photography. The world doesn’t need any more photographers. It doesn’t need anymore musicians, writers, filmmakers, artists or actors either. We have enough. Its over-saturated.
BUT
The world’s survival is completely dependent on work that matters.
Subscribe for more videos!
Watch More Episodes:
REMEMBERING BILL CUNNINGHAM
HOW TO MAKE IT IN PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON WITH JOHN FREE
Twitter:
Instagram:
Facebook:
Pinterest:
Website:
And get on our mailing list to stay up to date on photography news and the latest episodes:
Thanks for watching – if you like this video, remember to share it with your friends!
My name is Ted Forbes and I make videos about photography. I’ve been making photographs most of my life and I have a tremendously deep passion for photography that I want to share with you on YouTube.
The Art of Photography is my channel and I produce photography videos to provide a 360 degree look into the world of making images. We all want to get better so lets do this together!
I make videos covering famous photographers, photography techniques, composition, the history of photography and much more.
I also have a strong community of photographers who watch the show and we frequently do social media challenges for photographers to submit their own work. I feature the best and most interesting on the show when we do these so come check it out and get involved!
i'm a hobby photographer, i do it for the fun. Can you give me some advice how to come up with a project or theme etc as Ted briefly mentioned? Because currently i go out and shoot pics randomly but i'd like to be more focused, conscious when shooting. Thanks in advance.
Yep. I've had my work for sale as prints for years, on various sites. Not a single print sold. But, as you noted, the reason for making art, in the first place is to make art. The first artists were never paid for their work and they were lucky(?) enough to live at a time when money didn't exist and no one was paid for anything they did. It wasn't until the late 20th century that anyone seriously suggested that artists should or even could make a living from their work and it's been because of two factors that this has become possible: (1) digital photography and (2) the internet. But, as you've also noted, it's those two factors that have made it even harder to sell your work. When everything is so quick and easy that anyone with a smartphone can do it, photography has become almost a lost art that at least two generations of adults know and care nothing about. Yes, indeed, making pictures is what it's all about, not making money, and if I go the rest of my life (at this point, not much longer) without ever selling anything, that's okay. It's leaving my mark – leaving behind something I'm proud of – that matters most to me. A famous photographer was once told by a gallerist, "I can't sell these, but I can tell you that you'll be famous after you're dead." Look at Vivian Meyer, as an example. She took one tentative jab at showing her work, to a gallery in Paris, and gave up after being rejected. So, she squirreled away her photos and it took someone who recognized their value to bring them to the world after her death. I guess being famous after I die is better than disappearing into obscurity, as most homo sapiens have done.
Who will care about your photography is your family ancestors after you are gone. Documenting who you were and stopping time for the next generation to understand is worth.
he contradicted himself kkkkkkkkkkkkk
This really hit, thank you, great insight.
The comments are more entertaining then the video
Quite the opposite. We need more photographers, more talent, more creativity. We as a culture will develop and document much better product for our lives as well as change and enhance the future. Unless of course your happy with more of the same old shit served back to you.
We do care. We might not appreciate someones work initially but when we follow for a while we decide whether we like it or not. Likes are good. The best likes are those that offer a narrative of why they like the piece. Dislikes with a narrative are even more enlightening, they offer another viewpoint. Photography is an endeavour in which the vast majority of practitioners are amateurs. The best, as in any other profession, rise to the top. There are pure artists, but most are the best practitioners of Photography. I care about my photography. I study, want it to be the best. If others like my photography I am flattered and encouraged. If I like it, I am satisfied.
Arists…rule.
"The world needs work that matters." – Ted Forbes, The Art of Photography
Did I just watch a 7 minute video on YouTube without a single cut in it? Sensational, excellent work.
I saw a quote recently which said don't worry about what other photographers are doing. It might of been Tony Northrop I'm not sure. I don't have qualifications in art or photography, but I want a career change and do photography as a career instead of just a hobby. I got depressed today and nearly gave up on the idea, yet again. This was only because I saw amazing landscape photos from two qualified pro photographers in my area and thought, what the hell, I can't do as good as them. Thing is, I'm going to be doing something different with my photos anyway, so I thought, well what am I worrying about. As long as people like my stuff and buy it and I can make a living out of it, what the hell. I'm not going to do weddings or corporate events, just more of a landscape photographer. Up to now I've not had much time to even improve my previous photos on software like Lightroom, only a few on Paint.net and Cyberlink photo director and they look good on there, even some JPG I've experimented with to see how well you can improve them look amazingly better. I've just been restricted by my tools, the cameras I've owned, with restricted apertures and not wide enough angle lenses, small sensors and so on, but now I got a DSLR I know I will be able to excel myself and have much cleaner better images.
This is a great subject and helps me. Im a traditional studio artist, musician, singer songwiter, picking up film photogrophy. (there is simply a romance to film over digital but thats personal) as an artist struggling with the over saturated world of artists, this is the video that I needed. The question is where does my voice fit and how loud should I be? In my town I hear people saying that its really boring and there is nothing to do. Based on that, I think I have found an Idea for a project for photography. Thank you.
I love beautiful photos. And I like Peter Liks stuff and the size of the photos. But I can afford to buy them, so I learn photography to prints the photos myself, the size I want and I’m having fun doing it. So, do it for fun and if you can make money with it, great.
If you took one very ordinary photo and printed it and took it with you on a time machine back to 1860 people would be amazed and the image would stay in their memory for a long time and you would become famous, over time. If you set the time machine back to year 1000, well, you would be made a prince. The year 10,000 BC you would be made a god king. Instead with technology and modern communications there is no new image, no new music, no new story.
That isn't to say that people don't care about new images, musical pieces or stories. It is just that they care less and less, as the sources multiply at now exponential rates and they care even less and less about who makes them. As to photography anyone can take a stunning image, competently composed, and hundreds of millions of people have the means to do it. Any idiot can do it. Not so music where it's only tens of millions.
"Care" about your photography really means will pay for it. Which is not so much about your skills beyond a basic level but about your ability to self promote. To boost yourself and create a 'you' that people think they know. Create fans who invest their emotions in you. Which is all bullshit.
Very well put.
tl;dr: Nobody cares about your work, but they do care about good individual pieces of work. Right?
To paraphrase a line from "The Martian", you are a steely-eyed camera man. Art is a communication between the artist and the viewer; beauty is a successful conversation thereof, but neither can be sure of that success. So, it's entirely subjective. What I feel that the world needs, is more who understand the importance, the need for art, and crucially, those who speak it to us. Bravo, sir, bravo!
"It's not a popularity contest" Love this quote, since i always tell people about it. To me is more about sharing something that people like or that is similar to what they like.
I'm an artist, a former TV director, and a photographer. . .I've done all three of those things because I really enjoyed doing them. And I believe that because I have enjoyed all three, I've done all three pretty well. I also believe I can be better than I am, and so I continue to try to improve. And if along the way someone notices my work and enjoys it or compliments me on it, then I feel encouraged to continue striving to improve. And that's enough to make me happy since I'm not trying to be "popular".
A very motivational video
Hearing this does make me feel a lot better. I'm not all that into talking about my photography and not too much into showing it either.
#Legit )
Bravo. Your thoughts resinate with me. I don't know who first said, "A picture is worth a thousand words," but images/art is communication and we live in a complex world that needs images to start or continue a conversation
that matters, that makes us think about and hopefully improve our world just a little bit every day. Thank you.
Great video!
I like this alot. There are very few artist that come along that are trailblazers. In fashion photography it was Helmut Newton, in popular music the German band Can from the early 70's. Ansel Adams photos are boring. Joel Peter Witkin is very good,and Cindy Sherman also. But in general most people don't have a clue. Art is very redundant.
Yes what you are saying is correct ….. practice your craft , develop your vision , one meaningful image you make could evolve us all .
Yeah but people die and alive people need to take pictures of things that are happening currently…………………
A well known Utuber said something that stuck in my head. Do work that YOU yourself would want to see or watch. It will relate to someone else out there. Another music artist / song writer once told me … 10,000 people can look at a flower and no two people see the same thing. Sure, 1,000 people can take a picture of the same flower, but not one of them will be exactly the same picture.
It's important to take pictures that make you happy what happens after that is largely irrelevant.
We need more “Film” photographers.
We DO NOT TO have a lot musicians….
MOST OF THEM KNOW HOW TO PLAY INSTRUMENT…..
BUT THERE ARE NOT "artist"…
I keep my pictures for myself and my family and do not care about some idiots OPINION…..
I DO NOT CARE ABOUT
I do care if same care about my photography……
If you don’t print your photos out, then nobody REALLY CARES….
Smashes camera and jumps off cliff