Q&A..

This is a very interesting Q&A...for those who do not know who David is..check out his work in (www.magnumphotos.com)..cheers...

David,

Question:- I really like your website and enjoyed the shot of Josef Koudelka at the bottom of the collage on your “family/friends” page. You say elsewhere that advertising shoots help pay the bills. How then does Koudelka continue to do it after all these years and still not work for commercial clients?! Best, Davin.
by Davin Ellicson Mon Mar 26 21:33:43 UTC 2007 (ed. Mar 28 2007) | Vienna,Austria |
davin..

Answer:- This is a good and fair question…....photographers are just like everyone else…their life circumstances vary…....elliott erwitt, for example, lives with a spectacular view of central park from an apartment that looks like a movie set ….his choice….larry towell has a spectacular view of corn fields and lives in a house which he mostly built and chops his own firewood…his choice…both men do great work…..both have exhibitions in fine museums and powerful books…..
elliott has higher “overhead” than larry….elliott does commercial work so that he may live the life he chooses…larry , like josef, does not like commercial work and therefore chooses a lifestyle that requires less funding…..again, the bottom line is the work…..so one person does it one way and one does it another….to me it does not matter as long as one is doing serious work that he/she can be proud of….and, most importantly, be a “free man” in your mind and in your heart…
remember that many great classic photographers like avedon, penn, evans, frank, arbus, winnogrand, etc etc etc all did commercial work…..many great comtemporary photographers do the same….
joseph koudelka prefers to sleep on a floor somewhere (a real gypsy at heart)...he sells his prints to finance a minimalist lifestyle….elliott who raised six children and sent them to college prefers a bed i suppose (and likes the cultured life of new york)...he does ad shoots…both men are well collected by museums and have the best art dealers…
the only danger with commercial work would be if it took over your life and a photographer “lost his way” because of it…started shooting too much of what someone else wanted..but, so much of elliott’s personal work came while he was actually on a commercial shoot…elliott is psychologically built to work that way…..i doubt joseph or larry could or would be comfortable working that way….to each his own…
i do not chop my own wood to heat my house, nor do i have a view of central park…i keep my expenses very very low so that i can be as free as possible to do all the projects i do which are not income producing…i.e. book production, printing for shows, workshops, etc.. my only income is from limited magazine production, archive sales and the rare advertising shoot…..i receive so few ad shoots (like maybe two per year) that there is no way they could “mess with my head”...besides, generally they are a lot of fun and they are usually things like “go to india and shoot color, or go to italy and shoot a street festival”..most of my commercial work relates to camera companies, film companies or printing companies so they are looking for a dah picture, not an interpretation of an art directors sketch…....i do not go into a studio and photograph a pair of shoes!!! so the funding from an ad shoot gives me the freedom to do what i want the rest of the time…..
for those of you who are struggling with this, you must just create a balance…your balance, not someone else’s balance….your life, not someone else’s…..
now i just have to figure out how to pay next months rent!!!!

cheers, david
by david alan harvey Wed Mar 28 05:53:23 UTC 2007 | new york,United States |