Vince Lupo's Mapping the West

Bob Michaels said:
Vince, just an outstanding series. Probably the best I have seen here.


Hopefully, your work can serve as some inspiration to others here to work on a body of work rather than singular isolated images.
Click to expand...
Vince's work in this series has long been an inspiration for me. We're both "mining the same vein", exploring the landscape and culture of the Southwest. But Vince, of course, is a master!
 
Many thanks guys for the words of encouragement — I sure wish that commercial galleries would be as enthusiastic!

After my visit this coming December I’m not sure when I’ll be able to go back out. This may possibly be my last trip yet I don’t feel that the project is anywhere near done.
 
Richard G said:
Terrific shots. We are rubbing shoulders with someone better than us. That’s the best way. Getting the whole ellipse of the water trough and not only the complete cow in frame but just meeting the horizon too.
Click to expand...
Ah I'm really not that great, honestly -- I'm just wandering around trying to figure it all out like the rest of us.


Troy2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Vince Lupo said:
Ah I'm really not that great, honestly -- I'm just wandering around trying to figure it all out like the rest of us.


Troy2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
Click to expand...
But that's what makes your work so good! You approach your material with an open-mindedness and lack of preconceptions that allow you to experience and see what's there. So much photography of the West deals in cliches and stereotypes, and so many photographers think that a good photograph mimics one that they've already seen.
 
Vince Lupo said:
Many thanks guys for the words of encouragement — I sure wish that commercial galleries would be as enthusiastic!
Click to expand...
Vince: I believe there is no significant market for good documentary photography. Needed, very much so. Enjoyable to view, also yes. Something people want to buy and own forever, sorry but no. Can you imagine someone wanting to have a Dorothea Lange "Migrant Mother" hanging over their fireplace?

To each their own, but I personally resolved this decades ago by deciding I was not going to let the merits of my photography be defined by how much people would pay to own it. So I have refused to try to sell any my work. I take comfort knowing my photography is what I believe is needed, not what is influenced by what sells. Besides, I don't think that I am passing up a lot of money.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Vince: I believe there is no significant market for good documentary photography. Needed, very much so. Enjoyable to view, also yes. Something people want to buy and own forever, sorry but no. Can you imagine someone wanting to have a Dorothea Lange "Migrant Mother" hanging over their fireplace?

To each their own, but I personally resolved this decades ago by deciding I was not going to let the merits of my photography be defined by how much people would pay to own it. So I have refused to try to sell any my work. I take comfort knowing my photography is what I believe is needed, not what is influenced by what sells. Besides, I don't think that I am passing up a lot of money.
Click to expand...
I totally get that, though I have had a degree of good fortune with some of my images (for example one large canvas print from this project now adorns the wall of a winery in Las Cruces). I did recently submit my work to a gallery here in eastern Ontario - maybe by some miracle it will be of interest to them.

One thing that I do hear with a degree of frequency from friends and family is “you should do a book!” Uh no thanks. First, I don’t think the project is anywhere near that stage, and second the only book I’d be able to afford to do is a Blurb-type book. Of course when I suggest to my friends and family that I’ll gladly do it if they’re willing to pay for all the related publishing and marketing/promotion/distribution costs, for some reason they change the subject. Hmmm.
 
Documentary doesn’t sell.
Never did.
Unless paid for, sponsored, by groups of interest, there is no money nor interest in documentary anything. Especially not these days; people have their brains mega extra filled with information and all kinds of garbage, thanks to instagram, Tiktok, cnn and all the bs. We’re all so full.

Your documentary about new mexico seems to be a romantic endeavour, a pilgrimage within yourself. I don’t see any message in it other than it being your very personal project about a place you romanticize. Your project is not saving any land, nor a culture. It’s simply a depiction of your time spent over there, with a twist. But I can relate, the Rush and adrenalin you must be getting when doing the work is addictive, and basically that’s the most important thing. At least to me… people go Surfing, kayaking, skiing, skydiving and they end the day with only a story and zero photos. They did it to fulfil their own way of life with zero dollars profit. Same for us, photographers: we’re chasing the thrill.
 
Ororaro said:
Documentary doesn’t sell.
Never did.
Unless paid for, sponsored, by groups of interest, there is no money nor interest in documentary anything. Especially not these days; people have their brains mega extra filled with information and all kinds of garbage, thanks to instagram, Tiktok, cnn and all the bs. We’re all so full.

Your documentary about new mexico seems to be a romantic endeavour, a pilgrimage within yourself. I don’t see any message in it other than it being your very personal project about a place you romanticize. Your project is not saving any land, nor a culture. It’s simply a depiction of your time spent over there, with a twist. But I can relate, the Rush and adrenalin you must be getting when doing the work is addictive, and basically that’s the most important thing. At least to me… people go Surfing, kayaking, skiing, skydiving and they end the day with only a story and zero photos. They did it to fulfil their own way of life with zero dollars profit. Same for us, photographers: we’re chasing the thrill.
Click to expand...
Yes you’re definitely right. Guess I should be thankful for the attention it has gotten at this point.
 
Ororaro said:
Documentary doesn’t sell.
Never did.
Unless paid for, sponsored, by groups of interest, there is no money nor interest in documentary anything. Especially not these days; people have their brains mega extra filled with information and all kinds of garbage, thanks to instagram, Tiktok, cnn and all the bs. We’re all so full.

Your documentary about new mexico seems to be a romantic endeavour, a pilgrimage within yourself. I don’t see any message in it other than it being your very personal project about a place you romanticize. Your project is not saving any land, nor a culture. It’s simply a depiction of your time spent over there, with a twist. But I can relate, the Rush and adrenalin you must be getting when doing the work is addictive, and basically that’s the most important thing. At least to me… people go Surfing, kayaking, skiing, skydiving and they end the day with only a story and zero photos. They did it to fulfil their own way of life with zero dollars profit. Same for us, photographers: we’re chasing the thrill.
Click to expand...
Oscar Wilde

“Cecil Graham: What is a cynic?​

Lord Darlington: A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.​

Cecil Graham: And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn’t know the market price of any single thing.”​

― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

Happy to be a "sentimentalist". In our cynical world, Vince's project essentially isn't generating any money, so it would be seen as worthless. And as Ororaro points out, documentary doesn't sell. And to what degree does financial sponsorship corrupt the documentary process through self-censorship?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom