notes
Tonight I finished spotting and colour-correcting around 118 images that will make up an on-demand photo book of images seen on this site over the last few years. Since I post here less than I used to I felt like pulling all of the shots that I thought were my best from the site together into a book would be a nice exercise and also serve as a tangible archive for myself and anyone else interested.
Over the past three and a half years I feel like I have progressed with photography and I do have a much better grasp of what I want to photograph and why. In fact, I now have the knowledge that I do want to photograph which wasn’t really on my radar back in early 2003. I still pause before calling myself a photographer half the time but I also can’t rightly just call it a hobby at the same time. Except for a couple of photos that I’ve taken “on assignment,” I take photos for myself and don’t really have any urge to become a “pro.” But as my primary mode of expression, photography means far too much to me to think of myself as a hobbyist.
But why is it that with 4 years of a Fine Arts BA distantly behind me, calling myself “an artist” also seems like the wrong title — or maybe too connected to a world that despite my education I never pursued. It’s not that I don’t think I’m good enough. I feel like there is so much more I can do and learn but I am also truly proud of some of the images I’ve made. I realize that these are sort of get-over-yourself kind of questions and their answers aren’t critical to my sanity or anything but there is still a part of me that feels a twinge of “shit or get off the pot” on occasion.
Maybe I just owe it to myself to spend the time I need to realize what is the most comfortable “next level” is for me and photography and to probably respect myself enough to call myself a photographer and an artist and worry about what those terms might mean later. Just taking the photos is the important part after all.
Okay… internal monologue over. As you were.
