Commentary # 37: December 2009
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Photos in the Attic, and a Thank You to my Clients:

a re-post from December 2008


- by Craig Wassel


If you ask anyone to name a few famous artists, most will be able to come up with at least three. Maybe Picasso, VanGough, Rembrandt, or Michaelangelo will be mentioned. If you ask the same people to name famous photographers, though, it is likely they will only be able to name one if any at all: Ansel Adams.

Not all photographers necessarily admire Adams' work, but most do admire the fact that Adams was able to make a name for himself in an endeavor where it is exceedingly difficult to do so. One thing I find very interesting is that even among photographers who know a bit about Adams', most have the impression that with his "name recognition" success came financial success.

In fact, that is not true. He struggled financially during most of his life, and did many other kinds of photography to earn a living and make ends meet. It is estimated that the average income for full time photographers is somewhere between $25,000.00 and $30,000.00 per year. So the overwhelming majority of us photographers who do not have any name recognition (not even within the circles and subculture of the photography world) can still relate to Adams in that photography is not a lucrative pursuit.

Chuckle. What a bummer. We are not famous, AND we are not getting rich.

Before we photographers get too melancholy, though, let's take a step back and think about something - our own family photos. I don't mean the ones we took this year or even last year. I mean the ones of our family that came before us. Somewhere in our houses, whether in photo albums, a box that that has been filling up over time that we will go through some day, or in some dusty corner of our basement or attic - are precious photographs of our lives. There are annual school portraits, photographs of our parents, of departed loved ones, and of so many others.

What makes those old photographs precious is who is in them, what those people mean to us, and how they are frozen in time leaving us memories to cherish. That is what we think about when we look at them. Stop for a moment, though, and think about something else: SOMEONE took those photographs, and the older the photographs are, the less likely it is we remember or know who did. But someone was behind the lens releasing the shutter.

I hope that for the many photographers like myself who do portrait work for part or all of their income, this key point is not missed or taken lightly. Years from now, someone we don't know and who doesn't know us is going to look at a photograph of a loved one on a wall or in a photo album or in a box in the attic, or maybe on a disc. That photograph will be cherished and irreplaceable. When they look at it, they probably won't wonder who took it. But no matter, and that should not get us down. We should be happy in the knowledge that we make photographs that become more important to people as more years go by.

I hope photographers who have never reflected on this before will begin to feel very differently and warmly about their work and those they photograph. Are you famous and wealthy from your photography? Probaby not. Are you and your work important? More so than maybe you ever realized.

So to my clients - as another year passes and another new one is about to begin - I extend a heartfelt thanks for choosing and trusting me to make photographs for you. You will look at those photos in the years to come, then time passages will inevitably turn me into an anonymous photographer behind the lens to the generations that follow. The photos will live on, though.

That's good enough and important enough for me.

Happy Holidays, Everyone


Craig



" . . We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us . . "

~ Ralph Hattersley ~








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" . . . What makes those old photographs precious is who is in them, what those people mean to us, and how they are frozen in time leaving us memories to cherish. That is what we think about when we look at them. Stop for a moment, though, and think about something else: SOMEONE took those photographs, and the older the photographs are, the less likely it is we remember or know who did. But someone was behind the lens releasing the shutter . . . "







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