Listening to others

For those that don't want to read all this, here is a nice photo to enjoy.

This is one of the images from the series that I received Honorable mention in the 'College & University - PORTFOLIO' category at the international PIEA-PMA photography competition in 2003.

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It has been an interesting week. Especially here in the blog-o-sphere world. Nothing I care to revisit again in this forum. So moving forward . . . sort of.

There is one thing I would like to talk about. I just received a comment on my blog that said "like you, I don't really care what anyone says . . . " This comment quickly stood out to me as soon as I read it. Largely because I feel it does not accurately reflect how I feel.

I feel it does matter what others think. I put a great deal into what others think. Especially regarding my art work. But that doesn't mean I don't get annoyed with how somebody treats me or my work.

If I took the attitude that I could really care less what others think about what I am doing, I would be all on my own when it comes to improving upon my work. Or, if I only listened to those that agreed with what I already believed, then I could end up missing opportunities that could allow substantial progress to take place.

One such example occurred to me during grad school. Over those three years I grew a lot in my art work. It is hard to encapsulate the entire three years here. Plus that would cause this blog to go on significantly longer then I think would allow anybody to gain anything useful from it. So I will leave it to one example.

For the first 2 years of grad school, I photographed in black and white. I continually received feedback like "why don't you shoot in color". I resisted and justified my work with about 300 different reasons to why I stayed with black and white. But every justification felt shallow and empty. I felt I was shooting black and white for others' reasons, not my own. I felt I was misguided by those that supported my methods at the time, shooting b&w.

Sure it is easy in hind sight to realize that photographing in color and making large prints were pretty obvious choices to the successful final project. But isn't that just how life goes? (If only I had bought Amazon stock 10 years ago  . . .)

In my bw v. color example if I didn't stay open to outside input I may have never crossed the threshold that lead me to the finished project.

(With my current work, I feel it is kind of the opposite. I feel strongly about the work I do and I am shooting it for myself, yet I feel outside resistance to the work and feel as if outside influences are trying to steer me away from what I really want to do, trying to steer me away rather then helping me navigate my chosen course.)

(Ok, so that got a little long winded and actually is taking me away from the topic I want to talk about.)

I forgot the point I wanted to make . . .

Every person has an opinion. Some may state their opinion blindly while others may bring along credibility with their opinion. Or often times people force an opinion on others when they have no right to do so. In the end what counts is being open to the fact that when you have an opinion that there is always some chance that it could be wrong. So what becomes most important is in how one portrays that opinion to others or how you react to others opinions provided for you.

I know somebody that they feel they 'know'. They said once regarding a project I was involved in that "I know what people think/like, and they won't buy/like that" (I forget the exact wording but you get the point). I had to kind of laugh when they made this statement because I actually liked what they said nobody would like. So obviously they don't know what every person likes. Another example, just recently I had somebody tell me regarding two specific photos, that I cropped wrong or I did something else wrong. As if there was only one way to do it. What really made me chuckle was that I was very intentional in what I did with those images, directly countering what this person was telling me to do differently.

We are always going to face situations such as these so it all depends on how we react I suppose.

So the catalyst to this entire post . . . Another example is in regards to the reaction to some of my latest work. I already commented about it above somewhat. Honestly I am fed up with the joking attitude when it comes to my work. I feel those that feel they joke around about the work don't realize that I am serious in this work. And when people react they way they do, not taking the work seriously, I am offended because I feel they are not taking me seriously. I don't believe in making light comments in any situation. I have always felt this way. Somebody may say they are only joking but there is always a little truth to every joke. (Otherwise what good is the joke?)

I need to be careful here, I realize, as I don't want to come across as bitter or angry or pissed off, well at least too much. (I'll get over it eventually.)

So maybe a better way of going about criticizing someones work . . . Somebody told me a while back something about a specific image that I am very proud of and like a lot. I didn't like what that person told me and I resisted it/disagreed with it. But it wasn't until just the last few months that I have thought back to that image and understood what that person was telling me. And now, funny thing, I agree with their original assessment of the image. It wasn't until I had enough distance to really 'see' what that person was telling me. But because of how the person approached it, I didn't shut off what they had to offer.

I bring in this last example to show that it is important how this person went about telling me what they thought. They didn't get argumentative. They didn't tell me I was wrong. They didn't tell me they were right. They didn't joke around about the image – in a sense belittling the image and indirectly belittling the artist. They simply told me how they felt about the image and that was that. I commend this person for their level of maturity when it comes to such situations.

So why write all this out? I don't know. I guess it just helps me put perspective on things. As with all human relationships, one must walk softly and carry a big stick. :)

I like metaphors. So I'll end with one I just thought up.

When approaching resistance in life (or artwork), sometimes you need to just put your head down, march strongly forward and break through the wall of opposition.

The only down fall, sometimes that resistance causes you to put your head down, march strongly forward and falling off the edge of a cliff.