I understand why there are so many anonymous blogs in photoland.

It’s clever, it’s stylish. It’s a cut above, it takes talent, and not anyone could do it, even if it does look effortless. It’s beautiful, it’s moody, it’s a narrative, it’s a lifestyle, it’s compelling, and you know what? I’ve seen it ALL before.

Where is the new? Where is the original? Where is the next? This is not the voice of a voracious consumer, rapacious and chewing through the masses of objects insatiably hungry for the next, this is the voice of a disappointed photo lover, of a hopeless romantic with no object for my affections.

I adore photography, it is a compulsion within me that manifests in bursts and spates: I can turn the camera on myself when I need proof of my existence, I can turn the camera on others when I need to feel connected, I can turn it to a mountain when I need to touch the intangibles of life.

Yes, I have an ongoing frustration with my photographic vision -that will never stop. I have taken, we have taken, the occasional SUBLIME image, and one day we will take another, and one day we’ll have a whole bunch.

This other fight is outside of our production; it is simply as a lover of the photograph. I see so much, and I see it is GOOD, I see it has a place and a moment and maybe even some MEANING. But it all feels the same. Where is the inspiration?

I went to the ADC last week for a lecture given by the visual artists who received this year’s Young Guns award. The first speaker made very appealing music videos. They were hot, they oozed style, but I could attribute most of his visual devices to someone before him. It wouldn’t be fair to call him a rip off artist, he did indeed make the videos his own, and well, and they bore his identity and signature, but he boldly took from others. The moderator had the balls or audacity to ask him, “What have you shown us here that’s original?” We were all a bit dumbstruck, it was harsh, but on the money.

So this is my peeve. Polish is great, style is mesmerizing, execution is everything and talent essential, but when you can’t tell one artist from the next and one guy's work is clearly “inspired” by another’s, what’s the fucking point? Why don’t we just make robots for all our favourite photo styles so when the originators die we can plug in the photobots to keep cranking it out.

I wrote all of this every so slightly afraid of who I would offend, having linked to a number of photographers in order to illustrate my points. After some chats, Kate and I decided to remove the links. We've done it before, stated our opinions, said what we believed only to be castigated later. I have opinions and I don't think it's cool to kiss ass and be magnanimous, opinions are good, expressing them valuable, I don't intend to offend, I intend to discuss, express, and assess. But Kate's right, I'll regret it when a bunch of photo peeps hate our guts and make our lives difficult some day down the line because I used their work to illustrate how repetitive so much photo is now. I feel like I have to give in and tacitly support the sameness, when I would rather push my opinions in order to push the paradigm, push the standards, be better photographers, better image consumers, more conscientious participants in creative society.

We've found plenty of articles and blog discussions decrying our work. It burns for about 3 seconds and then you say, "whatever, next please". Yeah, people need to harden the fuck up.



And I feel pressure to shut the fuck up.

Mils