Liam Arthur

Some Thoughts on Conformity

Firstly I must make an apology.
In my previous blog post I did something that I swore to myself that I wouldn’t do when I started this. I should explain that I write these posts for me - to manifest the knot of feelings, opinions and fears created by pursuing a vocation so intrinsically entwined with my ego/soul/general well-being and view of the world. You are effected on a very personal level every day of your life when your success, income and often mental state are controlled by the raging maelstrom that is the photographic industry.
I write these small sections of thought and opinion to vent the internal dialogs that are often hard to communicate to anyone un/fortunate enough to be involved with something that effects you on such a deep and personal level and then to have to make the decisions needed to also support your kids whilst staying true to your ideologue.
Should a blog be a vehicle of self promotion? a digital bus-side or billboard that we spend our time filling? Or should it be a reflection of something more? I choose to exercise my opinions that relate to a world that is ever more complicated, the thoughts are a part of me and something that I feel (hope) has some value by putting it into the stream.
The process is a vent or a valve, but also an invitation.

So. I am sorry. I am sorry for falling into the trap of feeling that I needed to post a bullshit piece of information to thinly veil some factious self promotion. I am sorry that I was patronising enough to think that anyone would think the better of me as a professional, and mostly I am sorry that I let myself conform to the the modern view that our value is quantified by the amount we advocate and advertise our own worth.

As an explanation, I had had two correspondences with people that I worked for who had read the blog and thought that maybe some of the content was related to them, as well as a number of other professionals who said that it was not positive enough and would put people off hiring me.
I could see their point and decided to do what everyone else seems to do and tell anyone who had taken the time to read it how fucking ace I am.
Now I want work as much as the next person, but I am not willing to sell my integrity or patronise the people who have taken their valuable time to listen to my opinion, they/you deserve better. I know for one I am fed up with the stream of fake and gratuitous promotion and self branding that I have to grin and bear every day, I would much rather someone was honest and real. I don't care if you just shot the cover of narcissism magazine, would you piss on me if I was on fire?
The people I work with keep hiring me (thanks guys) so I cant be doing to badly. Its not like I am going to walk onto a shoot and start talking about the economy like the guy in the fosters ad. I do my Job every day and I do it well. I would hope that someone would want to work with a professional who genuinely cares not only about what they do, but about the industry and the world as a whole.

I suppose you could question why I put it up at all when it doesn’t serve to promote, and I couldn’t honestly tell you. It may be because I want to believe that there are other people that feel like me. That not everyone is flying high in cloud cuckoo land, or other people feel frustrated at the sheer mind fucking bizarreness of it all, and, that ultimately someone else cares.

| LA |