Augusten Burroughs visited William Eggleston and wrote about their visit in a meandering, laid-back, almost awestruck article. One thing from the interview stands out to me: Eggleston decides for himself what looks good and photographs that. Period. End of story. He does not attempt to explain why something looks good or why he decided to photograph it. “Words and pictures don’t — they’re like two different animals. They don’t particularly like each other.”
His approach is different from what I read when I first began shooting in earnest: find out what people want to see and photograph that. Granted, that advice comes from the many commercial/stock photography advice columns out there, not from other fine artists or art collectors and dealers, but that was the only advice available to me at the time. The idea of shooting what looks good to me even if I didn’t have the language to explain why seemed idealistic, if not arrogant.
But that approach has worked for Eggleston, who was lucky enough to find influential people in the art world who also thought his images looked good and were willing to bring them before a larger audience. That, in a nutshell, is the challenge for any artist: figuring out who likes what you produce and getting your work in front of them. Changing your art (outside of growing in skill or nurturing your evolving interests, of course) isn’t the answer.
Speaking of getting your work in front of those who like what you shoot, my second photo book is slated for release 31 October. Street Photography in NYC: 2007 – 2015 contains 132 glossy pages of my NYC street photography. This will be a 50 copy, signed, limited edition. Watch this site so you won’t miss your chance to buy a copy.
