Hobby or work

2021, December 29

You probably started photography just as a hobby, which turned into a passion and for some it even maybe turned out as a “real” job. If you can shoot what you like then you probably have the most ideal situation between passion and work.

If you can’t shoot what you like as profession, is it worth to do it for a profession? I am at the point to take a closer look what I really want to do in my day to day life. I have been in market research (technically/design) for more than 20 years now. I want to get out of the industry but it is easy just to stick in something where you are comfortable. You have your connections, reputation, skills and experience. But what if there is no passion anymore? So what is my current passion? Yes, it is in photography, but not in the obvious paid photography jobs like weddings, portraits, real estate, etc. But if you want to do this as a daily job, what can you do? I don’t want to go for a photography job just because it is related to photography. I need to follow my passion for what I want to photograph. Not the other way around.And when I want to start something, I should go all in. When doing something half, the end result also will be half finished = nothing.

How do we determine what we really want to do?

First, strip all the noise around you and answer the most simple question, what do you want to photograph?

For me this means that I want to shoot the streets. Not only the people in the street, just everything that I found interesting when walking (and cycling through the city).

Because we are looking into making our photography passion into a job profession. We need to commercialise this so that we also can earn some money on it.

So the second question, how do we think we can make some money when shooting (and in my case, shooting the streets)?

The obvious thinking is probably trying to sell your photographs. However in my case with street and documentary
photography that is not going to work. And I think the street photography itself is not (and maybe shouldn’t be) the sales part here. But maybe something else could come out of it. Just try something, do something, and that leads again to something new or something totally else. You need to start somewhere even if the end goal is not even clear. And if it doesn’t work, don’t stuck, try again.

How do you get the exposure in the !rst place, how do you get recognised as an artist? What would make my photographs so interesting that people want to buy it. And if you sell it, it will not be the jackpot. Ofcourse you need to believe in yourself, love and trust the photographs you make. But you also need to be realistic. We see the most beautiful photographs everyday, and how many of those do you actually buy?

What if we show all our best photos?

Where our first goal is to showcase yourself as an artist and get your photos out there.

The idea I have is to create a separate website where I can show all my streephotography photographs. That will be a project website, not my personal / artist website. I will categorise all photographs in albums, sorted by districts and tagged by keywords and GEO coordinates.

To get the most exposure, I need to add these to di"erent social media channels as well. The end goal, yes we were talking about hobby or work. But I have no idea where this can lead to. Maybe people see my photographs and ask if you can photograph their store, products, events, etc. But I am not sure if I want that if it comes along, but as mentioned you need to start somewhere.

Writing this all down ... I am even in doubt if you need to commercialise your photography. Because I ONLY WANT TO MAKE PHOTOS which I LIKE !! It is my artistic work, I don’t want to do it for exposure, recognition or money.

Hmmmmmm..... hobby or work? When it comes to work it maybe becomes not that artisticly free anymore.