Business VS Art for Art's sake

[RodinalDuchamp]

I am currently in college getting a BFA. I am curious however from real world journeymen and masters as to their experiences with the "fine" art world.

Please allow me to expand on the subject. My ideal of fine art is reaching a status where museums pursue your work, yes I understand that there is a road to be traversed that inextricably involves art dealers and collectors before museums will seek you. However I have noticed that the majority of photography gets funneled into small galleries and collections. I have no problem with this dynamic however it seems like this stage is the final stage for many or to some extent the standard to aim for.

How is this stage transcended besides talent/gift/ability in today's world. How much harder is it for a black and white film photographer. I occasionally see very well off color landscape photographers but rarely see any black and white traditional photographers making a real living, Clyde Butcher being the only one that comes to mind. Let's discuss all opinions welcome.

My personal goals are to one day be in a museum, money is not really something I am interested in. If I could be good enough to get into a museum I would be fine working a second/day job yes I am an idealist in that regard but I also a very cynic realist in other regards.

[John Kasaian]

Have you asked any museum curators?
I suggest getting one drunk first, then ask.
Pumping the bar tenders for info at cocktail lounges near museums might help you connect.
Couldn't hurt----might help.

[RodinalDuchamp]

Though that may work. I was hoping someone would have some experience in dealing personally with these folks. I guess I am worried that fine art black and white photography actually is dying not as a consumer product but as a museum quality exhibit. Most photographer's we study in school are 35mm street photographers; Cartier-Bresson, Friedlander, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Vivian Maier, occasionally conceptual photographers like Cindy Sherman.

There does not seem to be a focus at all on landscape and especially not on large format. I myself am working on my thesis which consist of nocturnal architectural/natural landscape portraits.

Basquiat has cemented the notion that it is who you know not how good you are that determines how well off you are. I'm an art purist I suppose to some extent.

[Tin Can]

I have a real problem with curators.

Good luck!

[RodinalDuchamp]

I'm guessing as I have feared that this has become far more about business than otherwise. Thanks.

[Kodachrome25]

The masters or experienced folks telling you hard earned secrets.....on the public domain of the web? Also, you are practically asking for advice on the web on how best to live your life.....you do realize that, right? Because it does not matter what anyone tells you, amateur, pro, selling at an art fair or on the walls of ICP or Moma, their lives will not be your life. The only way to learn where your life will go is to live it, so make the journey the main attraction through mind blowing images.

Someone will be that next artist, you can count on that, but the last thing they are thinking right now is how to get the attention of a curator. As you mature, your goals and your work will reflect that. If you end up being great at what you pursue, then things will fall into place.....but you are going to have to produce work that is far, far more ground breaking than you are thinking, I suspect...

And this is the Internet age....most people think they are much better than they really are due to lack of real critique and circles of mutual praise.

[djdister]

Rather than talking to curators, find some living photographers who have their work exhibited in a museum and talk to them.

[jp]

I'd suggest being open to various paths and definitions of success. Nothing wrong with having a goal or motivation though! The living photographers who have things in museums probably had a different path than the people they succeeded, so I expect a new artist would also have a different path.

It'd be cool to have stuff selling/collected high end, but there are many people in photo history that never did that and are still revered as successful.

I have chosen to work in tech/IT as I like it and photography. I consider myself financially successful because of those choices. I consider Art successful when a photo shows the mix of craft and creativity succeeding at my original intention for that photo. What the public or tastemakers like and what I like are often different.

[Jac@stafford.net]

You might do well to find a well connected, wealthy patron.

[Ari]

In the art world, there's not much difference between kneeling down or bending over.
Find what you like to do, pursue your path, and play by your rules. Otherwise you are living someone else's idea of life.
If the curators come to you, that will only be a superficial acknowledgement of what you already believe.
And when they suddenly drop you for the next big thing, you'll still be good at what you do.
"Fickle" doesn't even begin to describe it.