June 5, 2019

Control

What is the future plan for stock imagery?  What will the future look like for the photographers trying to make a good living creating images for the stock mega companies?

The photographer is a relic of the past. His importance has been wiped clean with the new age of see something, anything and click without a personal vision in the new era of everything needs to be photographed because everything in the modern age has an importance, a newness to the eyes of the young photographers doing their best to copy each other without a unique vision for themselves.

The new photographic vision is contained.  For who wants to think and perceive an image when in this fast paced life we live, who has the time to think, compose and reflect before entering the stage of making an image, a powerful external vision of your thoughts at the moment of exposure.

The run and gun model of image taking and then moving on as quickly as you can without understanding your present moments undermines the connectivity to the elements that are being seen and diminishes your ability to create a unique expression.

Without reaching a connection with the scene exposes the inherent detachment of the new generation of photographers with their external vision on high alert and denying their unique perspective their intuitive vision. 

If you missed the exceptional image tough cookies the next quickly composed image will be worth it. This rushing around with our sight blinded by misconceptions of visual selection imposes on the shooter a time limit on how he will approach the subject and in thinking about how to approach the subject the person gets bored and assumes that nothing is worthy of his presence here in this landscape and waiting is not an option and it is not what a photographer does, for he is a new breed of photographer attacking his subject, creating a scene without content. 

His method of seeing, being anonymous to himself and the scene in front of him climaxes the existential experience of seeing the world as a physical presence only and not a means of your personal expression. 

Surface reflections will do just fine for he doesn't even identify with the subject present and why should he spend time looking for a subject within the subject when he can grasp the entire field with one click of the shutter and then move on to the next straggling moments without understanding his infinite physical world and the means to overcome the external props that distract and ultimately through perseverance find in the reality you live in an image with purpose that expresses something that you find meaningful through your inner senses.

Instead of a connection of just a cold surface taken with narrow eyes unwilling to explore the external world through your inner visual intuition.

Snap shots have the ability to present themselves as authentic when in fact the photographer never even reflected on his subject but instead used a mechanical devise to exploit the burgeoning scene before him by creating a shallow performance of himself dulled by thoughts without focus in the scene that had potential if studied in depth by the photographer instead the photographer decided to take a few images casual anyhow and his only motivation was to hurry up and get them posted on social media. 

We are not living our lives we are running through our lives without grasping the corner stone of living in our unique present moments in the now of life. 

Image creation is a personal expression of your inner intuitive consciousness and when respecting your inner vision you want to be present in the scene, connecting with the changing light and interpreting the scene and it's details to become more than just a picture, it becomes your individual expression of this present moment.

What a gift photography can be to you as a means to express yourself without having to follow anothers vision but your own.

 

If you are at first not feeling a connection with a scene, why stop exploring it, look deeper into yourself, and find what is visually attracting your attention.  Look for new compositions that create a unique perspective, that might have the potential you were seeking to express. Don't leave a scene until you have at least explored its potential and captured some of what made you stop and look in the first place.

Stop ignoring your presence in the world. Stop just living without a purpose, just living as you passerby those unique moments of revelation.

The explosiveness of the snapshot, the ability to take images of anything has undermined and created a vast wasteland of surface perceptions that deceive the populace into thinking they are creating art when in fact they are creating a reflection of their shallow connection of exploitation. For without understanding the external world and its illusive character we are imprisoned into believing that this world is a unique expression of everybody when in fact it is the expression determined by a few to control the populace into believing they are free and are perceiving the world in their truth.  When in  fact they are experiencing an others world and their own inner uniqueness is imprisoned in someone eleses con-game.

There is too much activity for the mind to focus on and that is the intended purpose of social media.  We are being taken from our internal lives and being forced to play in the fast paste deception of a reality controlled by corporate media as a means to pull a bait and switch scam on people by keeping them distracted by an overwhelming amount of details that aren't worth anything but a means of misdirecting people from their truth and the truth of their exploitation by the hands of the accumulated wealth of a few, distracting people from the con game they are pulling each hour of each day.

The image world, a monopoly game controlled by the hands of a few major business, controlling the pricing of our image creation to suit their profit margins for their investors. We are the low man on the totem pole and will never be able to explore our abilities to create great images under the pressure of lessened value and without a means to make a living at what we must do in order to feel complete and that is create images from our inner being and express these images in an openness to willingly share our inner world with others.

The photo industry has lost its integrity and purpose.  The explosive accumulations of image creation has exploded and been detrimental for photographers thinking they can make a good living out of shooting stock photography.

The con-game guarantees that you will see a diminishing return from your unique efforts not just your image creation but also your written words. I remember decades ago when the photo agencies started to dabble in Royalty Free and tried to sell it to their photographers on its potential as a great way to sell their hard earned work. The truth is that RF is cheap and it destroys income for the full time photographers and the winners of this rat race are the buyers and the photo agencies that can automate their buying systems and cut more jobs and leave the photographers with pennies on the dollar!

The photo agencies I worked for in the 80's and into the 1990's had their priorities correct, protect their photographers making sure they were paid fairly for the effort they had to go through in order create a beautiful expression of their inner landscape.