Just Duckie

So you want to be a photographer, do you? Attracted by all the glamour,  the beautiful people, the shiny cars, boats, motorcycles, or here in Minnesota, the sheen of a new snowmobile. Are you a perfectionist with the need for clean, impeccable design, order and balance to the nth degree? Or possibly a person of deep emotions who desires above all else to express those feelings, wants, desires through pictures that you make? A bit of a nerd perhaps, drawn like the moth to a flame by the “stuff”, the gear of photography from the exquisite glass of the lens to the speed of a million terabytes of RAM?  Give me the power and control to create a fantasy world of flowing dramatic fashion, or the resolving power to image a chrome plated product as if the angels themselves had polished  it to perfection and I will be happy to say, yes I am a photographer.

Do I swoon over beautiful light, natural or created, absolutely. Is the translation of a three dimensional reality to a two dimensional picture an ever present challenge that I find myself “practicing” all the time, ask my grown children  about all the trips to restaurants where Dad was forever rearranging the table for just the right look. Since I first became aware of cameras the summer before I started high school,the creation of photographs has had a hold on my heart and been a major focus of my life.

So earlier this week when a fresh out of school assistant came to show me his work it would seem out of character that I should have really wanted to try to convince him to see the error of his ways and send him packing, back to his mother, who as mine had many years before, hoped her son would become a doctor. Was his work terrible? No, it was good solid student work, worthy of try as a new freelance assistant. With years of hard work and practice, much practice, he will make an excellent product photographer. The comment that kept coming back to me however was that biology and the sciences came easily to him. He obviously had an aptitude for remembering and understanding scientific data. When I asked what happened to med school, he replied that it was of no interest, rather he wanted to spend every minute he could in a photographer’s studio, not a medical facility.

Note, the average income for photographers is somewhere  between $40,000 and $50,0000 a year according to salary.com, while the average  income for doctors ranges $120,000 to $150,000. Considering all the layoffs I have been reading about during the current economic troubles, doctors have yet to be listed as a group in decline.

When I was an intern at the International Center of Photography back in the late seventies there were about a dozen of us in the program. The question of whether you should embrace your love of photography as a vocation, as your career, or keep it as an avocation, something you did solely out of the enjoyment you had from the art form, came up quite often. To have a different profession that paid well and afforded you all the Hasselblads you could ever want or dive into the day to day world of the working photographer and as the expression goes, “ Do what you love and the money will follow.” was an on going discussion as we all faced the approach of real life.

My career as a studio product photographer has been rewarding and successful enough to raise and educate four children. It has had periods of strong consistency and times when I felt like I was on an economic roller coaster complete with three o’clock in the morning visions of the studio’s checkbook floating before my eyes saying “Feed me, Larry, feed me!!” I feel a piece about the need for marketing coming on. I suppose someone who is in their early twenties cannot have the perspective of someone, let’s just say, older. However, when I hear someone throwing off a career so easily when they may be gifted in that direction for the love of making pictures, I find myself remembering those conversations with my fellow interns and wondering what I should be saying to him.

Comments

[Mon]

Lot the writing and the ducks... great prospective... peace to you all.

[Tracy]

Very insightful post about one of the timeless dilemmas of a college student (and anyone who has ever worked). Is it better to do what you love (and perhaps not succeed financially) or do something that earns more but is just "ok" or not something you enjoy? It's a tough one. For me, enjoying my everyday work is the right choice...but I wonder if I'll feel the same in 18 years when it's time to send my daughter to college!