What motivates you?
What drives you forward, wills you to improve? What keeps you going through the hard times, through the rejections and the failures? Is the the eventual rewards of success or the journey?
I have been thinking of this a lot lately. My motivation has been waning of late and I have been trying to figure out why. Why have I been feeling like it is all fickle and ephemeral. I have had my share of success as well as my share of failure (whatever you consider that to be) and definitely rejection.
The images I see gaining commercial and artistic success in the main I do not empathise with. I no longer understand what I consider to be good imagery.
I see projects on twins, ginger people, awkward teenagers all seemingly miserable and vacant, and I have to ask why, whats the point? I see happy couples in flared light drinking designer coffee, I am left numb. And I am as guilty as the next person.
Its as if ambiguity itself has a value in imagery - to say nothing is to say all you need. I see so many images that say nothing at all about their subject winning awards and adulation, is it just me that doesn’t get it? am I missing the something? Or are people hiding behind a veil of enigmatic bullshit because they have nothing of real value to say?
Recently I visited Paraguay with a charity that I volunteer for, we were there to deliver shelter for people displaced by flooding. During my time there I photographed the people I met, I had no agenda other than to point the camera and take a picture of them as they were - often only one or two frames. The people we met had lost everything (the little they had) They made their living from picking up rubbish in the city and selling it for recycling. Yet the pictures I got came back showing their defiance and strength, if anyone should look vacant and miserable it was them (or so it would seem in our western view of value) Not to say that these images have more or less value than any others, but it interested me that they were not what I expected to get when I left. The pictures are not by me - I simply pointed a camera in the direction of a person, the pictures are by the people themselves, and the narrative is not what was expected from a simplistic view of their situation, the lesson: a portrait is not, or should not be about the photographer or an idea of the person, but should be by the person themselves and physical motivation is inherently linked with theoretical motivation, you have to believe in what you are doing or it will have a short shelf life. Fuck these self indulgent vacant images of people who have more than they could ever want, if they say anything at all, it is to incriminate our hedonistic age of entitlement. Motivate yourself to document something real, something that adds value to yourself your subject and the world.
My lack of motivation it turns out is with our hypocritical and indulgent value of images, or at least with my view and interaction with them. I have been focused on success as a measure of work gained commercially and recognition from people for whom I have little empathy. Everyone finds value and motivation in different places and there is no right or wrong way - only that which sustains you.
There are image makers out there doing wonderful work, recently I discovered the work of Jim Motram, just one of many photographers producing work with consequence, exploring their subjects and displaying the socially conscious results in an engaging and honest appraisal of the subjects. His motivation is abundant and seems to be authentic, funded by donations, the commercial value at zero (even proceeds from a recent exhibition went to charities associated with the project) the value of the imagery increases in its pursuit of honest communication.
I am humbled by image makers that take a selfless view of the world, and are motivated simply by the art of communication and observation.
I have been focused for so long on motivating myself for commercial success that I have lost something along the way, it turns out that my motivation has not gone. I was just looking in the wrong place.
| LA |
