What are your photographic aspirations?

[FrankS]

So there you are, doing your photography "thing". What are your aspirations for your photography? Do you plan/hope to someday be famous and have your work hang in galleries or museums? Or are you okay if your photography was only good enough to satisfy yourself and a few others? (This is not to say that you are not striving to learn and improve.)

For me it is the latter. I do this because I like doing it the way I do it and if others happen to like it too, then groovy.

I wonder though, how many of you are aiming higher? How many of you would be disappointed if one day you did not become a famous photographer?


EDIT ADDED AFTER POST #36:

I should have included a 3rd category in this poll: I am striving for a career in commercial photography.

The primary goal for my photography and what I plan for, is:
a) a self-satisfying hobby activity, I'm not looking for fortune or fame
b) a paying career in some field of commercial photography
c) a success in the art world, I'm looking for fame and recognition as an artist

For many of us hobbyists, achieving fame and recognition would of course be nice if it happened, but we aren't deluded by thoughts of grandeur and thinking we are the undiscovered "next big thing" in photography.

For choice "c", I'm thinking of those who are driven/motivated by this outcome and who would consider anything less as failure.

 

[back alley]

i have no aspirations to be rich or famous from my photos.

looking at my photos and reading the posts from my last 2 threads, i would say that i am more into documentary type shooting and my main story is the 'old strathcona' area of edmonton.
if i could, i would like to catch the essence of that area...what it means to me.

 

[wlewisiii]

I picked number one, as it's true, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be thrilled to make an image that became famous.

In the meantime though, pics of my son enlarged to 8x10 & plopped on the living room wall are all the excuse I need 😉

William

 

[Jamie Pillers]

This is an excellent question. Often, my response to it would be something that would lead me to sell all my equipment and stop wasting my money and time producing countless images of things that don't matter. HOWEVER... now that you've posted a serious question, I'm thinking a bit more seriously about it. I think photography is, for me, a way to stay more passionately connected to the world. Going out into the world with a camera in my hand causes me to slow down and begin to really notice the world around me... to breath it in, in a more complete way. It forces my sensory self to open up and see... smell... feel the stuff around me. Its almost like having some sort of guru at my side reminding me to pay attention to the here-and-now because THIS IS LIFE... not all the other messy thoughts rolling around in my head.

So... aspirations? Nothing more than staying alive. 🙂

 

[FrankS]

Well said, Jamie!

 

[pesphoto]

I dont need or want to be discovered or have that desire. Ive had a couple shows and wouldnt mind a couple more just because it makes me happy and I like to share my work.

 

[stuken]

My aspirations, as you say, are to teach photography at a post secondary level, and teach afterschool programs to elementary and highschool students. I already do the latter, but I hope to advance the program over the years into something quite more substantial. I wouldn't mind exhibiting along the way, but that is not a priority.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Richard,
I would LOVE to see the retrospective!! My 6 year-old daughter is sitting here with me and I'm trying to explain why that guy is looking at us with goggles on. And I'm explaining that he doesn't always look like that... sometimes he doesn't even have a beard. The look on her face is priceless. 🙂
Jamie

 

[Al Patterson]

Last year I won both "Best Slide" and "Best Print" in a local NRHS Photo contest, I had a picture of mine in the center spread of a brochure of a local tourist railroad, and I've had them use a picture or two on their website.

While it might be neat to be recognized enough to mount an exhibit in a small gallery somewhere, that would probably end up taking the fun out of it if it starts to feel too much like work...

 

[peterc]

I take pictures for fun. If others like them ... that's good. If not ... oh well.
Were I to get discovered and have to do shows that would make it work and not nearly as much fun.

 

[slm]

Certainly not in it for profit or glory. I just really really enjoy photography. I hope to someday find my own personal project (much like Back Alley's 'old strathcona' he mentions above).

 

[Morca007]

If I can make photos that I (and maybe some of my friends) enjoy, I'm satisfied.

 

[bean_counter]

My father has left me and my family with a fantastic photo legacy; he shot quite a bit of Kodachrome with a IIIf/Summitar starting in the early '50's through today (though he has been bitten by the DSLR bug, so the Barnack usually stays in my bag).

My goal is the same; a family photo legacy that will last a while. I will shoot K64 while it lasts, and a lot of Ilford.

 

[swoop]

I want to be a world renowned photojournalist, with published books and a handful of gallery showings a year across the globe.

My career goal is to be a staffer at the New York Times.

If you're going to dream. Why not dream big.

I have my A.A. in Photography and a B.A. in English with a Journalism minor.

So far I've been a Teaching Assistant for two semesters at an NYC college. Practically teaching my own Photo1 and Photo2 classes while the professor was out working assignments in the Southern U.S. and Africa.

I spent a year working as a staff photographer for a culture magazine out in Milwaukee, WI.

I just got back to NYC a month ago, and have so far applied at New York Magazine, A small community paper, and a friend of a friend got my resume and portfolio into Hearst magazines. I also got a lead on another small community paper that hires freelancers on a regular basis. So I hope something comes up.

 

[Ororaro]

I want to be recognized by famous editors just like our own Valdemar. Apparently, if he likes your work, you're famous. What more to ask?

 

[back alley]

..I really hope we're all honest enough to admit the slightly narcisicistic view of we all want fame and glory...

all? please don't speak for me as you have no idea what's in my heart or soul.

joe

 

[Keith]

To enjoy my photography above all. At 56 I'm not about to be a rising star and my photography skills are more to do with being able to produce images that I regard as competent rather than brilliant ... too late for brilliance! 😛

One thing that has happened that I definitely regarded as an aspiration but really didn't think would happen ... is being paid to take photographs. The fact that I get asked to go to the occasional social event at a gallery opening and use my M8 and get a cheque for my images at the end of the process is more than I would have expected.

I'm very content where I am. 🙂

 

[sem]

Hi,
it is like Jamie said. I like to learn alot. Thanks to the forum for all the answers to my questions and like to do experiements, use different lenses and films and developers and so on. Sometime there is a photo that I realy like and thats it. I learn to look at people that I know better or things arround me and it is always a surprise when the film get out of the tank and is ready to be scanned.
sem

 

[Ronald_H]

A few years back I started photgraphing a band I liked very much. They are quite famous where I live. My ultimate dream was that they would use my pictures someday in their artwork. Well, they contacted me (not the other way round!) and it indeed happened.

It didn't make money out of it, mostly because asking for any makes me feel awkward. Photography is great, I have learned (and am still learning) a lot, but I am most definitly not cut out for the business part of it. So I slave away at my 9-5 and enjoy photography as a hobby.

 

[ruben]

My father has left me and my family with a fantastic photo legacy; he shot quite a bit of Kodachrome with a IIIf/Summitar starting in the early '50's through today (though he has been bitten by the DSLR bug, so the Barnack usually stays in my bag).
...............

Oooops Bean, this is not so simple to be left hanging in a single sentence as an every day issue.

Many many of the friends at RFF, me including, have mentioned this goal, or have it in mind. But you are the first I know about to be at the other side of the equation.

I mean you represent that son or daughter for whom we are working to show them "the world we knew".

Therefore it will be more than nice if you could expand in writing your feelings about getting such collection of images. Could you give us a deeper insight here ?

Consider too that many of us, assembling that legacy, may have wild things in our mind, disconnected from reality. So what do you see in that collection and what other members of your family see there ?

Cheers,
Ruben