It's been an up and down week. I got a great Christmas present- on Christmas day I got a positive comment on one of my posts here from a reader in Australia. I joke over and over about the three of my friends who read this blog regularly- I never expected to be an internet sensation, but it felt surprisingly good to find out that there are literally people around the world reading what I write and likeing it.
Turns out that not all those readers are fans. A while back I wrote up a post about my first show, with a group called RAW Artists. This post has been one of the ones most frequently linked to via Google searches as a pipeline into my blog. Lots of artists are apparently wanting to learn mroe about RAW. And some apparently have had a different experience with them than I did. When I logged onto my Facebook page this evening I had an interesting series of comments and links posted from someone who seems to exist on FB totally as a foil to RAW Artists. His original comment was on one of the automatic post links that goes up on my FB page when I make a blog post. Interestingly enough, the post he attached his scathing commentary to was not the RAW Artists post, but rather was attached to a post I wrote expressing my admiration for another photographer's support of marriage equality. In this reader's eyes, I am a "troll" which is interesting, because he was the one posting scathing comments and useless links on my page. I am also a "gullible amateur artist."
Let's dissect those critques: Am I am amateur? Well, this blog was set up from the get go as a chronicle of my attempts to transition from a part time hobbiest to professional shooter. Am I Ansel Adams? No, nor have I ever claimed to be. Do I make my living solely from my camera? No, I do not. Have I been paid for my photographic work? Not a lot, but yes, I have. A few people have ordered prints from shoots, and I am about halfway through my first contract gig doing some architectural photography around San Diego. Do I still consider myself an amateur? Yes. Guilty as charged on that count, but I don't take that label as the insult it was clearly intended to be. I know I am not there yet, that is why I am putting in the work and learning as I go, I don't expect to be the best in the world right out of the gate. Which leaves the charge of "gullible." Apparently this respondent did not bother to read my article at all. From the initial contact RAW made to me, there were no lies, no dissemination, no false expectations set at all. I even referenced the article he so handily posted a link to on my page (along with a suggestion that I do more research... I do so love irony...) which talks about RAW being a scam. His FB page and the articles he linked to basically boil down to the single complaint that RAW is somehow deceiving artists in order to bilk us out of our hard earned money. My short answer is, "WHAAAAAA- you want some cheese to go with that whine?"
But I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe in other markets the coordinators use more devious and underhanded tactics. All I can speak about from my first hand knowledge is the San Diego area and the team who was running the event I did last year. After I contacted them in response to an ad they placed looking for artists for a local show, they "deviously" explained to me that to participate I would be on the hook for a fee (I think it was $300 total, can't remember for sure). I could either sell tickets to the show and pay the fee that way or if not, I would be responsible for paying the difference between the total and however many tickets I was able to sell. Any tickets sold over that minimum would be theirs, not mine. In return I would get space at the event, advertising along with the event marketing and photo and video from the event for my personal use. That's it. Not really sure where the deception or gullibility comes in. I knew exactly what I signed up for and RAW delivered exactly what they promised they would deliver on their end.
Since then I have looked at a quite a few pages and statements from people who have been "scammed" by RAW. Their complaints basically boil down to the shocking revelation that there are corporations out there that seek to make money off the work of artists. Surely, this is earth shatterring news, I can't understand for the life of my why it isn't the lead story on every major news outlet. Companies trying to make a profit off the work of artists? That model is truly a rarity in this world. Good thing major record labels, movie studios and book publishers never work that way.
Wow. I never thought I would hit this moment, but I may have hit my maximum sarcasm potential, at least as much sarcasm as I can find a way to put into a print medium without vocal inflection and non-verbal cues. Seriously, you had a bad experience with RAW, you feel that anyone and everyone should be paying you for the priviledge of viewing your work. I get that. But get off my back. I knew exactly what I was signing up for when I said that I would do the RAW show. They promised me nothing that they didn't deliver on. They didn't make me a star, but I didn't expect that they would. I wanted some exposure, I got that. I had a great night overall, made some contacts and have gotten some follow on gigs from those contacts.
Ok. It's obvious from my rant above that I maybe took this commentary a little too personally. I have learned over the past few years that I shouldn't worry about what other people think of me and how they act towards me. I can't control that, all I can control is my reaction to it. I will choose to see the positive and be happy that the fact that I have been trolled means people are taking notice. And I am pretty sure there has never been a recorcded instance in history of an artist that didn't have scathing critics at some point. So I will take it as a sign of progress.
Finally, in the interests of fairness, since I have removed both the comments and links from my FB page since that site is designed basically as advertising and promotion and not a place for flame wars, I will post links to the site of the posted and to the "info" sites he linked me to so you can check them out if you want and make your own decisions.
https://www.facebook.com/anthonyxmountain
http://www.merylpataky.com/my-raw-artists-experience.html
So decide for yourselves. Me, I am competely unsurprised that a corporate entity is happy to make money off of my attempts to grow as an artists. I expect it. As long as they deliver on what they said they would, I don't expect anyone to go the extral mile to help me out. I fully expect that before I make it as a professional, I will have to invest a lot of my hard earned money and my insufficient supplies of time and personal energy in variuous ways chasing my dream. There is no art without loss and sacrifice. I can live with that and the circus has made me tough enough to take some pain in search of art. (ok- by some, I mean a lot, my fellow aerialists know what I mean) That being said- if anyone finds that mythical unicorn of a promotion company that really wants to give every dollar they earn back to supporting my art, and pay out large amounts of money to help unknowns like me get national exposure, please send me their info.
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