You can find the full article here:
http://www.thephoblographer.com/2014/12/07/8-famous-photographers-changed-past-year/
Where you will find the likes of Benjamin Von Wong, Lisa Bettany, Zack Arias Jenna Martin , Nicholas Goodden and Lindsay Adler Talking about how 2014 has changed them. Still not sure where I fit in to that list of utterly amazing photographers but anyway.. here is what I wrote about my 2014…
….2014? I am glad it is gone or going at least, but as with life sometimes the hardest lessons are the ones we need the most.
Running out of the tail end of 2013 I was neck deep in planning for the first ever Photography Show in the UK (planned for March 2014). I was into the planning stages for a few things so deep that Christmas came and went, New Year came and went, my birthday happened and then it was the Show in March. Life was a blur and nothing but stuff really happened. I was so busy with other things for the last part of 2013, I had not photographed anything, nor did I until near March after the Photography Show. It was one of those time where things happened around you but you are unaware of them, a blur. After the Show, came the drop, super busy to nothing. I had nothing to do but I was happy, confident and felt validated. This seemed to attract good things. I had time to chill out, time to reflect and time to be nice to people rather than in a rush. I had time to go for coffee rather than a quick phone call in the middle of shoots or dashing for a train. All of a sudden I had a string of great shoots including The Feeling whose music I adore. I did some traveling to Cyprus and Israel then some traveling in the UK too. I found myself in a relationship again and my photography was slipping into the background and becoming part of my life rather than my life. I guess this is the work-life balance. I was working less but having a better ratio of work and a better quality end result. I guess it is true that happy people work better. The time away from having to shoot was amazing….unknowingly I had a break away from the camera and it changed me. It seems we all need some downtime once in a while.
When Chris and I were chatting over Facebook, he asked me, “How do you feel that you’ve progressed over the entire year since the beginning. In terms of art, marketing, knowledge, etc. Just in general? How have you become better?” ‘Hell, Chris, it’s late I am about to go to bed – that’s some heavy stuff’ was my first thought, the second was was very simple.
I have learned to shoot less.
I feel that due to the fact I have been photographing things less, when I have been shooting, I have been more focused and more on task, getting better results. I have been far more selective now with how I have worked and who I have been working with.
My quick answer back to Chris over Facebook was, “The work you turn down is more important sometimes than the work you do.” I guess I stand by this, but what I think I meant to say was, just stay on task, stay true to who you are, what you do and where you want to go. When it gets tough, don’t wander away from what you do. I think in some kind of retrospective way, due to all the time commitments I have had around the world and the time spent away form the camera let me focus my energy for when I was shooting.
How I have changed as a photographer though, that’s another thing. I am sure if I have, I am still me, still doing my thing but maybe a little more confidant to say what I want in the way I want them. I have been turning things away I don’t want to do and bringing more DKP to the table. The big one here was turning the Guns & Roses’ guitarist away for a shoot because the terms and conditions were not suited to my liking. The decision rolls around in my head from time to time. Would photographing him, after the travel and production costs, have been worth it ? How much is a photo of Slash in my portfolio really worth? I started to turn down low paying work that was getting me down and taking the fun away. I stopped the crappy jobs that sucked.
When people hire a photographer they are buying more than one thing. Mostly they are buying your time as a person. They are buying your thoughts, your energy and persona. If you are selling that cheap around the corner, how do you expect to be on top form when the jobs you want are coming in ? I made the effort to try and raise my game which meant cutting of the bottom. Stretching your brand to much is never a good thing.
At another specific point, I have tried to separate out my hobby from my work. Work is work and Dave time is Dave time. I wanted to find a way to better balance all this out. Personal projects are great for many reasons but that’s another story. In my case, I have decided to put time and effort (and money) into my Portrait Project. This was about reclaiming the fun back into photography and creating something for just me. Photographing the people that have been in my life or affected my life. People I admire or changed my life in some way. The technical elements are in the back seat for this project and for me it is a time to really work on the physiological elements of working with people and the nature of proper portraiture. Stuff like this could never done on clients time, but I have had to turn down work to find the time. This distinction of making money or making happiness is my point. I can use my camera to do either or both. Finding that balance is the thing that I think helped me this year.
The kicker to all of this is that peple want to work with happy people. Your work WILL be better if you are happy to shoot, and shooting the things you want to shoot in a way that you feel valued. This goes back to a point I made before that people hire photographers for a number of reasons and your skill with the camera is not always the most important element..
Take some time downtime, get things wrong, mess up, go traveling, get lost, get out of your zone, fall down and you will start to see how tough and how good you really are. If your view is a little cloudy, well, fuck it, open the windows and fly away. I promise you, you are better, stronger, smarter and more talented than you think you are. It’s just that sometimes we all let the dust settle and we need a shake down once in a while and a chance to put the world back together again.
The personal things that have happened around me this year and the people who known me personally might really of noticed this more but, yeah. I have been stubborn, selfish and tempestuous. I have been arrogant and at times less respectful of the help given to me. I have got a few things wrong this year and I have been bitten. Quite rightly in hindsight.
We are photographers. We document. We see. We observe. We create happiness and capture sadness. We are all human and many of us wear our hearts on selves. We are emotional people and react as such.We are emotional people and react as such. We are not perfect and we need to look after our minds just much as we look after other things.
That is what I have learnt this year.
– David Kai Piper
