They Became What They Beheld

Posted on Jul 13, 2012 in Personal |

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This video below done by Vi Hart was made for her Youtube audience, but I think the message could also apply for us photographers. Well, she didn’t really make the video for her audience, she made the video for herself; and by doing so, she advertently creates an audience that follows her. Confusing? Kind of. It’s only but a way of saying you should create art that you enjoy making, for yourself, not somebody else. I must admit, when I first started taking photos with my camera, I paid a lot of attention to how many views the photos would get, how many comments, and how people would judge/react to what I was posting. At some point, though, I stopped looking at the numbers and the statistics. I take photos because I enjoy doing it, and if you happen to like my work, very cool; if you don’t, that’s cool too. My work sucks, I know it, and I know you think it, but I’m proud of my work, and I know there’s a lot of room for improvement. For myself. By myself.

“Artists don’t address themselves to audiences; they create audiences. That artist talks to himself out loud. If what he has to say is significant, others hear & are affected.” – Edmund Carpenter, in his foreword to ‘They Became What They Beheld’

This is a nice way to describe the difference between art and entertainment. Entertainment attracts an audience by making people comfortable – by showing people what they were already expecting to see. Art creates an audience by making people uncomfortable – by teaching a new way of seeing.