Issue 102 | February 4 - 11, 2022

This week I came across Bronx-born author Grace Paley’s delightful poem, The Poet’s Occasional Alternative which vividly describes the difference in the effort she has to make, and the appreciation she receives from writing a poem versus making a pie.

everybody will like this pie
it will have apples and cranberries
dried apricots in it  many friends
will say  why in the world did you
make only one

this does not happen with poems

My week, photographically speaking, hadn’t gone that well. I received a polite rejection on a recent call for entry submittal. Every polite rejection stings a little, but this one - for a group exhibition of older photographers called 30 over 50 was just a little stingier. You enter a call for entry like that with a little extra confidence, thinking to yourself “at least here I’ll have a chance.” Well…maybe not.

It’s all good though. If one seeks money, recognition, or applause for their photography, there will be many dispiriting polite rejections on the way to the good moments when someone does appreciate your efforts.

Standing out in the world of photography is a tough business, and I think the challenges of this endeavor are not fully appreciated for either the serious amateur or the hard-working professional. Along with existing systemic (and often toxic) challenges and barriers that shouldn’t be ignored, there’s a basic economic and cultural reality that is often glossed over - The supply of photographers and photographs - good photographers and good photographs - far exceeds the demand. My sense, as someone who looks at a lot of photography, is that there are thousands of really talented photographers in the US. And probably hundreds of thousands of photographers who can be relied on to make a pretty great picture at least once in a while if not on demand. And millions of photographers if we include everyone with access to better tools like sophisticated phone cameras that can improve anyone’s photography. The output of all these photographers is extraordinary. 95 million photos are uploaded just to Instagram each day. Whether by luck or intention, if one was able to see the best of each day’s uploads, I have to imagine one would see a few hundred if not several thousand genuinely remarkable pictures.

Viewed from this perspective, and given these numbers, any recognition we receive beyond our circle of friends and family seems worthy of note. We are not bakers, making a pie that almost everyone will enjoy. The world, in my estimation, actually needs 95 million pies a day. It does not need that many photographs.

My sense is that this supply/demand problem, as much as anything else, is driving the excitement and energy around NFTs. Some photographers want to believe so badly that at long last something has come along that will turn their photographs into special magic money pies. Some photographers, particularly the earliest and most enthusiastic advocates and adopters of this technology, will succeed in that remarkable alchemy, but the success of a few will not change the fundamental reality that photographs, in any form they may appear, will always be more plentiful than those who wish to buy them. I believe letting our hunger for conventional success turn our art, our medium, and our craft into a speculative financial instrument is a profound mistake.

Yet it’s so painful to work so damn hard at something, and not receive even modest tokens of success in our society like the money or occasional kudos most average 9-5 jobs provide so readily. This seems unfair and wrong as well.

I wonder if one reads Grace Paley’s full poem there is another message that suggests maybe, as artists, we ought not to disparage our lot in life as ignored or dismissed poets, but instead value ourselves as neighborhood bakers who craft delicious and nourishing artistic treats that really can feed the souls of family, friends, and communities we care most about. Maybe some folks from outside our communities might even get word of what we’re doing and drop by for a taste? Maybe there’s even a sustainable business in this way of seeing what we do, one that doesn’t make us feel bad so often?

Food for thought anyway. I’ll see you next week.

❤️

James Prochnik The NYC Photo Community | Issue 102 | February 4 - February 11