There is a point in every photographer’s journey when we stop thinking in terms of single images and succumb to the pull of the photography project.
Projects allow us to combine multiple images to tell larger stories. Or they help us hammer home our point of view by repeating an idea across multiple frames.
They require both vision and commitment in equal measure. But they also introduce an interesting problem.
What do we do with the project once it’s finished?
We might like to think the hard work is behind us. But in reality, the job is only half done.
Are We Just Being Lazy?
For most of us, the next step is predictable. We put the project on our website, share a few images on social media, and wait for people to notice.
But why those places?
Because uploading photographs is easy. And, critically, it spares us the discomfort of approaching someone who might respond with less enthusiasm than we hoped for.
We’ve chosen our outlet based on convenience and comfort without considering whether it’s the best place for our work to be seen.
We were ambitious when we made the work. But that ambition seems to have deserted us when we needed it the most.
Putting on Our Big Boy Pants
The truth is, taking photos is only part of being a photographer. The most successful amongst us are the ones brave enough to go looking for an outlet.
They don’t sit back and hope the right people stumble across their work. They seek them out, start conversations and risk rejection.
Great salesmen have two things in common. They can communicate clearly why the work matters and have a thick enough skin to keep asking until they get the yes they’re looking for.
If we’re brave enough to put our point of view into photographs, we have to be brave enough to stand behind it when someone asks why they should care.
An Unimaginable World of Opportunity
It is a myth that if your work is good enough, its audience will eventually find it.
Even Ansel needed the help of Albert Bender and later Harry Lunn to bring his work to a wider audience.
Other people can see possibilities in our work that we can’t. They have connections we don’t have access to and opportunities we won’t even allow ourselves to imagine.
But we have to give them the chance. We must stop being so afraid of being dismissed that we dismiss our own work on their behalf.
Doors open to those brave enough to knock.
Finishing a project is an achievement. But if we believe in what we’ve made, we owe it more than a few posts and the hope that someone will notice.
We have to carry the ambition that drove us to make the work into the conversations that could give it a future. Explain why it matters. Risk a disappointing response. Give people the chance to see something in it that we can’t yet see ourselves.
We don’t need to know where every conversation will lead. We just need the courage to start one.
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