Naked Women, Richard Prince, Peter Lik, the meaning of art, and a bait and switch. (not necessarily in that order)

  Spoiler alert: There will be no images of Naked Women in this post. However; my last post, which had the words "naked women" in the title, quickly became the most read post in my blog history, thus teaching me the truth of a lesson every advertising executive since the dawn of time has learned, sex sells. When Og and Trog the cavemen first started selling fire, they probably did it using a naked cavegirl as their grunts-model. (guessing this happened before speech, so no spokesmodel). But anyway, here's the bait and switch portion of this post. I do occasionally take pictures of sexy, scantily clad men as well, so here is some eye candy for those who enjoy that sort of thing:

    So, now that you have gotten your daily dose of photo hotness out of the way, even if it wasn't what you expected, now we get to what this post is really about. 

   The news this past week, at least in the photography and internet privacy circles, has been Richard Prince selling slightly altered images from other people's instagram feeds for insane prices at high end New York Galleries. There's a whole mess of articles and follow ups on this one, and whether it was a copywrite violation or not. Based on what I have read, as much as it sucks to think, it seems like he was within the letter of the law. You can read all that and come to your own conclusions, that isn't what this post is about. 

   This post is about my thought process, which went something like this:

First though: "WTF?"

Second thought: "Seriously, WTF?" Ok, let's skip down a few because it took me a bit to get past that stage."

15th though: "Some one was willing to pay $90K for a picture they could have gotten for free on the internet..... WTF?"

   And this is where my thoughts started to get into something I thought may be worth a blog post. What makes something ART? And what makes that ART worth $90,000. Or, in another recent story, what makes a photograph worth $6.5 Million, like Peter Lik's recent sale. 

   I am not even remotely prepared to address the question of what makes something art. I have so many different opinions on this even in my own head, that I don't feel qualified in any way to put out a definition that would stick. The closest I can come is that ART is something you make not just because you want to, but because you have to. Your soul can't rest until it's done. If it meets that criteria, then it's art, whether any particular viewer likes it or not, whether anyone is willing to pay anything for it or not. ART doesn't need to make a statement, other than, "here I am." 

    Once upon a time, in the technical theatre days of my youth, someone swept up the backstage area of the theatre. On a whim, these techies (some booze and drugs may have been involved, I can neither confirm nor deny that) took the resultant pile of sawdust, screws, random pieces parts and whatnot, superglued it into a giant ball, spray painted it various colors, gave it a super pretentious name like, "cosmic disentegration of the universe," entered it into an art competition, and won. Now, was this art, or just silliness? Is there a distinction? Was the statement- "you art judges are all F'd up and stupid?" This leads me back to Richard Prince. I saw that he has a history of doing this sort of thing, testing the limits of copywrite and such. I have to wonder if he started out on a bender and just threw some slightly derivative work of something public out there and said, "no way is anyone stupid enough to actually pay me for this.... right.... holy shit... someone is actually that stupid.... mother fuck... seriously.... ok.... if you are actually willing to pay me for stealing shit I guess I'll keep doing it..."

   Which leads to the question of what is ART worth. The only answer I have been able to come up with is that your art is worth whatever you can convince some jackass..... er.... art lover.... to pay you for. If you have the balls to throw some slightly altered instagram screen captures up on a wall, someone else is willing to give you gallery space for it, and someone is willing to pay you $90k for it, then I guess that's what your art is worth. Once, in a gallery, I saw- this is not exaggeration, a completely BLANK canvas. I think it was roughly 3x4ft, with the title "WHITE" and a $5k price tag. Seriously. Someone had the sheer balls to put a completely blank canvas on a wall and see if they could get someone to pay $5k for something they probably got at the Micheal's five cent sale. 

  Which leads me to what the hell I am doing wrong and why I think I will have trouble making it as an artist. I simply don't have that sort of chutzpah. I feel like I need to give you some sort of value for your money. When I shoot artists performing, it's hard for me to ask for money, because it's something I enjoy and would do for free if I had some other source of money that was sufficient to allow me to do so. So when it comes to charging, I will base my prices on what I need to get by, not what I think I can get from the audience. I am just not built that way. I'll add a modifier because time spent shooting is time I am not spending with my family, but it's still time spent doing something I love. I don't want to strike it rich, all I want to do is make enough to take care of my family doing something I love. 

  Which brings me back to Peter Lik and his super sale. A year ago, before he became news, I randomly stumbled into his gallery in Waikiki while my ship was in port in Pearl Harbor. I was blown away by his work. His shots were beautiful, but even beyond that, he had developed some incredible ways to print and display his work. That's what you can't see in the internet articles. His large scale prints looked almost 3D, and managed to shine even in the dark, without the traditional glow in the dark paint effect. When I saw that one of his prints went for $6.5 mil, I wasn't really that shocked. He put in the time. He did the work. He came up with his own unique style and his own printing processes. He built the galleries, he did the marketing. He made a bet on his own skills, abilities and images, and he won big. He earned it, more power to him. 

   Richard Prince is a hack. Maybe he is trying to make some sort of statement about copywright and public domain, I really don't care. He is making a living stealing other people's work and using the veneer of making an artistic statement to justify it. If this was the first time he'd done it I'd be more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but really I think he falls into the same category as patent trolls and most of the lawyers you see advertising on tv looking for class action clients. I think he has just realized that not only can he get away with it, he can also make a killing getting away with it. (Mr. Prince, if you are reading this and want to disagree, feel free to shoot me a message and we'll discuss it over a beer- your treat, you can afford it). But I don't think what he does is art. Lik, on the other hand, despite the insane prices on his work, I think really does it for the art. I think he'd still be shooting landscapes even if people weren't buying them. (Mr. Lik, if you're reading this and wish to discuss anything over drinks, same offer applies- I know you can afford to buy) Maybe Prince would still be stealing your instagram photos if he wasn't getting paid to do it, but that's just creepy. 

   Anyway, I know this is not one of my most coherent posts, but my thoughts on art are a jumble of stuff, all over the map, like art itself. And, like art, even if it isn't perfect, sometimes you just have to put it out there because it's tearing its' way out of you whether you want it to or not. So you give it to the world as it is. I think all good art does make the viewer question something, even if that question is an generic as "why," or "WTF," so on that note I will leave with two images and a question for you: Are these ART? 

  The first one, in the spirit of Richard Prince, is a slightly edited copy of someone else's art, in this case an edited picture of a painting someone else made. So, is my copy of some else's work art? What if I gave it some pretentious title, say, "Cosmic Swirly," and listed it for $50k? Then is it ART?

 The second, in the spirit of Peter Lik, is only stolen in that I saw something in nature that I thought was beautiful, in this case a single leaf dangling by a strand of spider web, spinning in the breeze, and took a picture of it, which I then edited and tried to make into something beautiful. If it was hanging in a gallery space I bought in some major city along side more of my work, would it be worth millions? 

   One thing I am sure of is that art raises questions. So I would love to hear yours, and am always open to serious, or even whimsical, discussion of any of my opinions- as long as you're buying. Until then, I will keep posting about NAKED WOMEN, because even if it isn't art, it sells!

   

Fire, Naked Women and Life Shifts... aka what have I been up to lately...

  I'll start with this image, not because it's one of my best, but for two other reasons. First, it's safe for work, unlike most of the rest of the images in this post. Second, this is an image of the last sunset at sea I will likely see in the role of a Naval Officer. It's been a heavy last few weeks.

  For those of you just tuning in, I am a career Naval Surface Warfare Officer. My photography passion started long before that job and will continue long after, but that's been my primary work and source of lively hood since 1993. Last December I pretty much found out my career was not going to go much further, and a month or so ago I found out that what will probably be my final tour will take me away from San Diego and the life I have built here. May was my last month out to sea on my final ship. Leaving the ship I have mixed feelings. I am glad that I won't ever have to deploy for long stretches away from my family ever again (aside from two months of training coming up on the east coast, enroute to my new assignment). But I will miss the sea itself, and the feeling of being in control of a 100,000 ton nuclear powered airport and the 6000 people onboard. Honestly, there are a lot of things I was never good at in my career, which rightfully limited how far I could go, but one thing I can do better than almost anyone else out there was drive a ship. While I may suck at powerpoint, 3M paperwork and the admin BS, put my on the bridge or in Combat and stand back, there's not many better.

   How are my limitations as a Surface Warfare Officer germain to my photography? Well, there are interesting parallels. What was I good at? Ship driving and watch standing. Ship Handling is a mix of science and art. There are general rules, techniques and formulas that can get you through 85 percent of it. But that last 15 percent is all art... you have to understand the rules and the science well enough to know when it works and when it doesn't, but ultimately you have to feel the ship under your feet and learn to react before you can see things happening. I can't describe it, but it's the feeling of, "wait for it.... wait for it... NOW!" but no one else feels the now moment and no science can point to it. Seems similar to photography or any other art, in that you have to know the technical side, but applying the science becomes a matter of art that you just have to feel in yourself.

  Anyway, in the last couple of months I found out I was moving, I eloped to Vegas, and did a lot of shooting, and being stuck on a ship for a month away from the world gave me time to get caught up and start to process all that.

    So, after years of living in San Diego, finally decided to shoot a model at Blacks' Beach. Other that the stupid amount of stairs to get down and up, especially with 50 pounds of camera and lighting gear strapped to me, it was a great place to shoot.

    The long flat expanse of calm water gave me an idea, I really wanted to get a fire spinner out there, I was hoping to get a really good reflection in the nice, flat water. Alas, the night I had a model and the time available, the tides and weather didn't cooperate, and I couldn't get the perfect mirror I wanted, but we still got some good shots.

  I also did a promo shoot for a Fringe Festival show that is being putting on by (and performed by) a group of my friends and fellow circus people. This was a great shoot, the only down side to it was I found out I am not as immune to poison oak as I thought I was. It has never bothered me before, even though I have waded through it numerous times doing search and rescue and just hiking, but I guess I finally got enough to overcome my resistance, because my legs were mounds of itchy pain for a month after this shoot, but it was worth it because we got some great stuff.

   Most of these were lit with speedlights balancing the sun, just like the beach shots earlier in this post, but I also decided to experiment a little bit and see what I could get with just some nice golden hour natural light for a few shots.

   It was a fun afternoon of shooting, and totally worth the itchy hell that followed. I also got an email from a burlesque dancer who really liked the shots I did of one of her shows, so she wanted to hire me to do a shoot with her for her web site. Had a blast, again, did some speedlight and experimented with some natural light as well, and really got to take advantage of my 85mm/1.4 for some classic boudoir shots.

 Kept the hotel room we shot in for a mini stay-cation with the wife and our son, managed to get a great shoot in with the wife, but sorry, you don't get to see those shots ;-P.

  In addition to the shooting and editing, as past of moving onwards and upwards in the Arcanum, I had to come up with a vision of where I see myself in the future. Strangely hard, but appropriate as I contemplated my impending move. So, as I get ready to head to my new home in San Antonio, where I will probably retire from the Navy and look to establish myself a local photographer, I had to figure out exactly what I want to shoot and who I want my market to be. This was much harder than I initially anticipated.

  After a lot of thought, what I realized was that while shooting beautiful, naked women was fun, it was really just a bonus perk but not what was really important to me. I want to shoot artists, both performing and standing still. I want to be the guy that the local circus performers, burlesque dancers, yogis and theater artists call when they want pictures. I want to shoot their live shows, I want to shoot awesome projects with them, I want to shoot headshots for them that aren't just standard cookie cutter stuff. I want to be the guy they call to capture their soul, their art, their expression. I'd like to make enough income from photography to break even, but I think ultimately I am more motivated by recognition of artistry than payment. Money is nice, but respect and admiration is better, that being said, money is necessary to survival.

   Which leads to moving. I get to re-establish myself in a new market. This is the epitome of the whole challenge = opportunity theme. I will have to establish myself as part of the artistic community not only in San Antonio, but neighboring Austin. The bright side is, none of the artists there will be my friends and family like they are here, so I will be able to establish a paying relationship from day one. But I will need to build a clientele, I want to become the go to guy in the area for any dancer, artist or performer who want shots done, either action or posed for their portfolio.

   This leads to a lot of work on my part. I get to spend the next couple of months totally re-working my portfolio and my site to cater to the photographer I want to be. Focusing on festivals, artists and performance primarily.  I even have a good tear sheet to start, the artist that made my trapeze saw the pics from the bridge shoot I did a while back and asked to use them for her publicity, so I am slowly getting known as a circus shooter. Then I get to get in the market and make connections and see what happens.

 In the mean time, I am going to try and shoot what I can while I am traveling, but posting might be intermittent until I get re-established and come up with a new home and a new normal. Until then, the journey continues. Click on.