…Are the people who do or want to do what it is that you do.”
This is about photography.
I’m a product of the Internet and, as much as I want to distance myself from it, social media as well. Although I’ve managed to get away from social media, I still find myself on Reddit. And that is a very strange place, especially for creatives. It’s the place where everyone is an expert and a has a doctorate in everything. The photography community is the worst!
If you’re reading this, you know what type of photography I do. Never have I come across more people who either hate or trying to strictly apply rules and morals to photography. According to “my fellow photographers”, I’m the biggest pervert in the world because I enjoy photographing nude women or that there’s something wrong because I only photography nude women. That somehow also translate into the work that I do isn’t good because “it’s just a naked woman”. That’s only the case on the Internet from other photographer. Or people who claim that they are photographers because on Reddit no one ever has any of their work anywhere for anyone to see.
I have quite a few very religious relatives and they’ve seen my work and praised it; both the technical skill and the artistic visualization. I’m talking 60+ year old aunts and female cousins who said (paraphrasing) “That’s not really my thing, but it’s good.” I know that men seeing my work is going to get a positive reaction mostly for the nudity and the fact that it’s what I do. But I also get positive reactions from women. This is all in the real world, though. To add to it, I’ve never had anyone tell me that my art is bad or that it’s weird that it’s the only thing I do in real life, and never been told that by a woman, period, real life or the Internet.
I had a revelation this morning while texting a coworker who I’d just let see what I do and thinking back to another who I showed some work to earlier this week. Both women. They praised the art and my talent. One telling me, “You don’t belong behind a desk.” While the other asking me what more am I trying to do and offered to do some digging to help me achieve that. Add on to that all of the women that I photograph who enjoy being a muse for me and my ideas; 40-50% of the models I work with are (became) friends and frequent collaborators because they like what I do and enjoy being apart of it. So I have to ask:
Where did this moral pedestal and enforcement of rules in art from men on the Internet come from? Any why is it so prevalent today? And this isn’t all male photographers on the Internet. I’ve met some photographers on the Internet who love my work, people who check for and look out for me in the art world, and people who a believe in what I doing so much that they’re will to promote and support me, and has time for me if I want to pick their brain about things; shout out to the homie Quintavius Oliver (someone who I look up to a lot in the photography world).
I’ve gotten to the point where it doesn’t bother me that people question my art because there are way more people who genuinely love and encourage what I do. But it does bother me that there are people out there who think the way they do and think that there are or should be rules on how, who, and what kind of art is acceptable.
What are you really hating for?