NOTE: If you like this image I did just make it available on my ETSY store!
I have to admit, I’ve been struggling with the internet as a whole lately. Yes folks, I need to vent! Life is pretty rough for anyone out there like myself who enjoys photographing and sees the artistic value in working with the human body. Every single time I turn around it seems I am getting backed further and further away into a corner.
Just this week, I have been put on notice by Instagram for posting an image that they felt violates their policies. Even though I begrudgingly censor everything I put on Instagram but it still feels like I’m fighting against a tide that just doesn’t want me there. This week I was also put on a 30 day ban from posting anything new in my Print Store for offering something up for sale that the internet game wardens did not deem artistic enough to be in the “Artistic Nude” category and should have instead been in the “Adults Only” category. Facebook is off limits all together for me and as much as I love Flickr it doesn’t seem to have an audience beyond people who are photographers themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Flickr following, but sometimes the joy of sharing photography is doing so with people who don’t necessarily practice photography.
So with my frustrations mounting I’m left wondering where it is I want to spend my time sharing, and quite frankly getting compensation for work on-line. I’ve always enjoyed selling prints but that is becoming increasingly difficult as every sight I know keeps getting more and more conservative with what they deem “artistic”. For a short while I had a Patreon account and I’ve considered building one again. The trouble there is I’m not sure what sort of paid content I can offer there that I don’t already have right here for free on my main website. Should I start making more video content? Tutorials, behind the scenes of a photoshoot, etc. etc. Would anyone actually want to see that?
Decisions decisions…
Anyway, just some general thoughts going through my mind as I clean up the house this afternoon in preparation for a house guest the rest of the week. Sweeping my floor and washing towels tends to make me think about the business side of being an artist, something most of us are pretty bad at doing. I’ve been saying for years, I wish there was an industry of social media experts who worked as agents in much the same way that Hollywood movie stars have agents. I focus on the art while someone else puts my work out there and just takes a percentage off the top.
Wouldn’t that be cool?