you are %100 right. especialiy about the 1,000,000,000.01 “photographers” (read: consumers/hobbyists) who buy digital cameras and suddenly they’re bargain-basement Richard Avedon.

I know some commercial photographers who admittedly do not understand or have any interest in “artsy fartsy” photography and are in the business as a business. In reality, these types of individuals could probably just as easily be in any other career. They don’t “need” to be a photographer whereas an artist, whether that person is creating “pure” art or commercial art, has a need through passion to be working in that medium for whatever reason.

I know several artists who, once they became commercially famous, lost their desire to create because of the demands (through distributors/publishers) forcing them (through contracts) to create works that didn’t interest them personally or artistically but were commercially successful (to a broad market where once they were creating limited, high end works to a smaller, “more appreciative” audience). They were essentially “owned” by the companies they signed with. They made tons of money, but were artistically and personally unsatisfied because the work was less like art and more like work.

The successful artist, in my mind, is one who can balance the capitalistic, profit maximizing demands of the marketplace with personal control of the work being produced (if a person wants to make money creating art). That means the individual has to take a stand for themselves, understand the marketplace and the demands it requires, to look at the longer view and not be blinded by perceived short term gains, to be in control of their own destiny.

There are many, many people creating excellent art with no intention or desire to make money at it. They are creating art because it satisfies them in some way and that, in itself, is enough.

Here are some things that will destroy an artist’s gift:

- $500 editorial day rates (in this expensive digital age) with interminable contracts, demands for original receipts and all rights, and being treated with contempt by clients who don’t give a shit whether you can make a living or not because there are fifty people in line behind you.
- A buyer’s market caused by a million digital photographers entering the market, all prepared to accept low rates and give away all rights.
- Hours wasted on the computer archiving, retouching and sending files to clients who aren’t prepared to pay for that time (or equipment for that matter).
- Clients who can’t recognize or don’t care about the quality of the work they publish.

I sincerely believe that the marketplace enables more gifts than it destroys.