While all the rejections lately have been a real downer I am not going to let them curtail my photographic creativity or dreams. I have decided to double down and have therefore concocted a "Grand Plan" for my photographic future. Now that I am 50 years old I have limited years available to me for making pictures so I need to take more drastic steps to tell the stories I need to tell. Screw what the art experts think, I am going to make my pictures the way I think is right and tell the stories that I think are important. I will make sacrifices and push forward to create regardless of the critics.
Wow that was very self righteous and arrogant paragraph!! I must be turning into a ARTISTE!
The grand plan consists of:
1) Working my security gig until I have $100 000 dollars in the bank, that should happen when I am 54 or 55 (hopefully sooner). It will be very hard to save that much, I will have to do without lots of things but in the end it should be worth it.
2) Asking for a leave of 6 months from my work site where I have been for 18 years (by then over 20), if the leave is refused I will quit the site and move on ( a scary idea).
3) Go to Asia for 6 months to pursue my various Asian photo projects, then return to Canada.
4) If I lose my security site I will continue that rotation process, 6 months or so in Asia followed by 6 months or so in Canada working. This plan would allow me to create thousands of photographs, it would allow me to devote myself completely to my art.
5) I would keep up this 6/6 thing for as long as my money lasts, possibly 10 to 18 years. If I can spend $10000 every 6 month in Thai (difficult), that would give me a possible 10 years of shooting. I will have a few other money sources later on in life that will hopefully help things out. With the addition of these money sources I might be able to continue this until I am 70 years old.
I would be living a very spartan existence but there is the real potential to create a very important body of work and that is what really matters. I think its important to start now in my 50s, who knows what shape I will be in when I am in my 60s. I wish I could start today but first I need the $100 grand first. I can expect no grants from the art expert people, except possibly the Edmonton Arts Council. I will have to do this on my own as best I can.
This plan could lead to great things and also involves lots of sacrifice. I will have to live very cheaply as a lower middle class Thai person might, no expensive meals, plane tickets or hotel rooms. When I return to Canada I will be forced to work all kinds of shitty security gigs for low pay, just to get by. Now I am comfortable and work a wonderful site, with decent pay, I would be giving up my comfort to chase down my dreams.
To help this plan along and to allow growth I plan on buying a cheap condo in Bangkok. The condo I can resell in 10 years and recoup some or all of my investment. Until then I can use it as a base of operations, a local safe comfortable place (a second home) I can hide out in and rest up for the next series of pics.
So often I hear from photo acquaintances why they cannot make photos, its excuse after excuse after excuse, I do not want to be one of those people. There are no excuses if you want to do it you simply sacrifice other areas of your life to allow for photography. If you do not do that then you do not put enough value on photography, plain and simple.
By following this plan I am setting myself up to have some powerful negs (at least in my eyes) when I reach 70 and go into the major printing phase of things which should be the last 10 years of my life (assuming I reach 80). I can also work towards fulfilling my vow to my father of getting a real (no blurb stuff) photo book published which I can dedicate to him. I owe my father everything I am and I need to move forward 100% in my photography not only for myself but also as a tribute to dad.
So there you have it, a selfish, conceited, arrogant long term plan to accomplish all my wild dreams and photo goals. No excuses, no stopping, just moving forward! Some folks will laugh, look down on and be critical of this so called "Grand Plan" but that is of no consequence. If you want to do important things you have to make sacrifices, you cannot bow to peer pressure to conform and you need to work very hard. Those that sit on the fence casting stones, should to be ignored.
If this effort leads to even one truly great photograph, it will be well worth it.
Wow that was very self righteous and arrogant paragraph!! I must be turning into a ARTISTE!
The grand plan consists of:
1) Working my security gig until I have $100 000 dollars in the bank, that should happen when I am 54 or 55 (hopefully sooner). It will be very hard to save that much, I will have to do without lots of things but in the end it should be worth it.
2) Asking for a leave of 6 months from my work site where I have been for 18 years (by then over 20), if the leave is refused I will quit the site and move on ( a scary idea).
3) Go to Asia for 6 months to pursue my various Asian photo projects, then return to Canada.
4) If I lose my security site I will continue that rotation process, 6 months or so in Asia followed by 6 months or so in Canada working. This plan would allow me to create thousands of photographs, it would allow me to devote myself completely to my art.
5) I would keep up this 6/6 thing for as long as my money lasts, possibly 10 to 18 years. If I can spend $10000 every 6 month in Thai (difficult), that would give me a possible 10 years of shooting. I will have a few other money sources later on in life that will hopefully help things out. With the addition of these money sources I might be able to continue this until I am 70 years old.
I would be living a very spartan existence but there is the real potential to create a very important body of work and that is what really matters. I think its important to start now in my 50s, who knows what shape I will be in when I am in my 60s. I wish I could start today but first I need the $100 grand first. I can expect no grants from the art expert people, except possibly the Edmonton Arts Council. I will have to do this on my own as best I can.
This plan could lead to great things and also involves lots of sacrifice. I will have to live very cheaply as a lower middle class Thai person might, no expensive meals, plane tickets or hotel rooms. When I return to Canada I will be forced to work all kinds of shitty security gigs for low pay, just to get by. Now I am comfortable and work a wonderful site, with decent pay, I would be giving up my comfort to chase down my dreams.
To help this plan along and to allow growth I plan on buying a cheap condo in Bangkok. The condo I can resell in 10 years and recoup some or all of my investment. Until then I can use it as a base of operations, a local safe comfortable place (a second home) I can hide out in and rest up for the next series of pics.
So often I hear from photo acquaintances why they cannot make photos, its excuse after excuse after excuse, I do not want to be one of those people. There are no excuses if you want to do it you simply sacrifice other areas of your life to allow for photography. If you do not do that then you do not put enough value on photography, plain and simple.
By following this plan I am setting myself up to have some powerful negs (at least in my eyes) when I reach 70 and go into the major printing phase of things which should be the last 10 years of my life (assuming I reach 80). I can also work towards fulfilling my vow to my father of getting a real (no blurb stuff) photo book published which I can dedicate to him. I owe my father everything I am and I need to move forward 100% in my photography not only for myself but also as a tribute to dad.
So there you have it, a selfish, conceited, arrogant long term plan to accomplish all my wild dreams and photo goals. No excuses, no stopping, just moving forward! Some folks will laugh, look down on and be critical of this so called "Grand Plan" but that is of no consequence. If you want to do important things you have to make sacrifices, you cannot bow to peer pressure to conform and you need to work very hard. Those that sit on the fence casting stones, should to be ignored.
If this effort leads to even one truly great photograph, it will be well worth it.
