many photographers dismiss, or even despise, the idea of creating for an audience
it is true that first and foremost, we should create for ourselves
otherwise, if we follow trends, if we just create for recognition and for likes
that will probably lead to frustration and burnout
but like it or not, we all have an audience
even those photographers who have no desire whatsoever to share their work with the world
and that audience is our future selves
just think about it
see, art is a reflection of the artist at the moment of creation
when we click the the shutter in the case of photographers
our newest photographs will always resonate more with us because they
are closer in time to that moment of creation
this is a problem because time has the tendency of
creating emotional distance between "then" and "now"
if the images that we create fail to resonate with others today,
they might fail to resonate with us in the future
and that would be a pity
I'm sure you've experienced something like this before
some images feel more rewarding than others because they were harder to make
this is the way I feel sometimes after making
images after a strenous hike or in very challenging weather conditions
those images required a bigger effort to make so naturally,
I will look at them under a very different light
I will attach the hard work that only I know went into making them, to the images themselves
I made some of these images during some hard hikes and I treasured them for that
but now, years later, I see them for what they really are
they are just bad images and I don't relate to them anymore
not at least in the way that I used to
at the same time, other photographs that were not nearly as hard to make do resonate with me today
long exposures are another kind of photograph that I tend to look at in a kinder way than others
just because they take longer to make, they take more effort
but as I said, an audience doesn't know that, and neither will you in the future
once the feelings and the attachment that you have
towards those very recent images starts to fade away with time
and believe me, it will, because that's just the way we work
once that happens, the meaning that those images used to have for us changes
and we see them for what they really are
but at the same time, as we saw, other photographs might go through the opposite process
they get better as time passes by, we appreciate them more
that's likely because they were always better images
more powerful than those that were emotionally charged,
but lacked the ingredients that made them good images
images that stand stand the test of time
and this is the main point that I was trying to make in this video
this is the danger of not having an audience, any audience, in mind when we create
when we judge an image on the feelings that we have at the
moment of creation we might be failing to communicate those feelings to others
including ourselves in the future
this is why I believe that we should create knowing that someone will
even if it's just us again in the future
look at our work with fresh new eyes, without the context that we have when we are behind the camera
if we don't do that, if we create only for ourselves...
we might have an audience of one today, but we might have an audience of zero tomorrow
not even ourselves will understand our photography
and that's all
I'd love to hear what you think, please let me know in the comments down below
thank you so much for watching, and see you in the next one!