who has "arrived"?

**Guy Tal** · 30-Jan-2006, 07:47

As others noted - it's really a matter of personal perception. I don't know who used the term with you but "you have arrived" are the same words said by Stieglitz to Eliot Porter. Stieglitz initially rejected Porter's work from his gallery and supposedly this influenced Porter to double his efforts and find his photographic "voice".
In this instance the proverbial arrival is about Porter achieving recognition by someone he admired and respected (not to mention Stieglitz held the keys to commercial success in the photography art world in those days, at least in Porter's genre).

So - either define "arrived" for yourself (being widely published? making a full-time living? capturing that once-in-a-lifetime image? being accepted by some high-brow gallery?) and focus your efforts there or, if you're happy with your journey thus far - keep at it and let others worry about semantics.

Guy
Scenic Wild Photography

**Jim Galli** · 30-Jan-2006, 08:50

I do know I haven't. I don't expect to know it if I ever do. I'm enjoying the journey immensely and that is all that matters just now. Potential is what keeps the lotto ticket sellers in business. I just keep buying those tickets.

A few years back I sort of "arrived" and folks have been pestering me to do color work again ever since. I'm not interested. So much for the perceived value of "arriving".

**Gary L. Quay** · 30-Jan-2006, 09:14

I believe that its not whether one has "arrived," but your condition, i.e., have you arrived in the train, or under it?

Perhaps, once arriving, a wise person would disembark, stand on the platform and look around for a bit, then choose a new destination and get back onto the train. Resting on one's laurels is bad for both the one and the laurel. I have always found that the journey is always more fun than the destination.

I know that much of this has been said by others, but I just didn't want to let a good metaphor to go to waste.

Good Luck!

**Hugh Sakols** · 31-Jan-2006, 19:47

I arrived on last Saturday. I grabbed my 35mm camera and tripod and walked for at least 5 miles photographing CA newts. They are slippery as all hell! But I was ready for em!!! Maybe I got one. We will see next week when my little film comes back. I certainly wasn't thinking about work or anything other then - darn newts!!!!! I thought this would be easy. Afterwards I came home, and surfed all the photography online forms I could think of - at that I departed!!! Imagine if I caught one of those little suckers with a 5x7 camera and perfect fill flash ----- shitttttt!!!

**Mark Woods** · 31-Jan-2006, 20:42

JJ you're back!

MW

**Raymond Bleesz** · 1-Feb-2006, 08:05

A nice question & nice responses:

I have not arrived although I have asked the question of myself-- I'm still learning & making mistakes----I'm still Socratic in my thinking, and I do not know or perhaps care if I will ever arrive. But my father perhaps taught me a few things. A very simple man from Alsace with no education. He raised a family & put me through school & gave me values. He "worked" with his hands all his life & enjoyed a few pleasures in life & suffered a few as well. His attitude in life was to plod ahead, day to day doing one's very best. I do not think he worried about "arrival". He arrived in my opinion.

Another Alsacian was multitalented,------- pastor, musicologist, medical doctor------- a model for all of us, IMO. He, I believe, was not interested in his "arrival". What he did was for mankind, out of his heart, a Humanist who was not concerned with "arrival" He worked.----Albert Schweitzer.

At Lambaréné, Schweitzer was doctor and surgeon in the hospital, pastor of a congregation, administrator of a village, superintendent of buildings and grounds, writer of scholarly books, commentator on contemporary history, musician, host to countless visitors. The honors he received were numerous, including the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt and honorary doctorates from many universities emphasizing one or another of his achievements. The Nobel Peace Prize for 1952, having been withheld in that year, was given to him on December 10, 1953. With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné.

Albert Schweitzer died on September 4, 1965, and was buried at Lambaréné.

**Ellis Vener** · 1-Feb-2006, 10:49

Welcome to the new plateau. If you look carefully , off in the distance you will see the tops of the next range of mountains that your path leads to.

Enjoy the hike.

**Kirk Gittings** · 1-Feb-2006, 12:05

Ellis,

And that is the real point isn't it. Each new award or whatever simply makes getting the next book easier or creates better venues for shows etc.

For me I am already deeply into the next project (the next range!) with my favorite collaborator author VB Price. It is a book for UNM Press and UNM Museum on mythological landscapes. It is due for release and exzhibition in early 2008. I want this to be my finest project to date.

I just simply want to work and make my contribution. I am only 55 but I already feel like time is running out.

**William Mortensen** · 1-Feb-2006, 14:03

"Arrival" carries a sense of finality to it. If Weston arrived with Pepper #30, where did he go after that? It's a million little steps along the way, and sometimes I stop in my tracks and say "here I am." And like Buckaroo Bonzai, I'm usually right. Arrival is marked when they thow that first shovel of dirt on your coffin, (though I'd prefer being blown up or dropped into a volcano...)

On the other hand, I suppose "I've arrived" could be noting that one has reached a certain status, either within a community or one's own mind, where one wanted to be. Arrival could be anything from the first okay print to a major retrospective at the MMA.

Personally, I feel I've arrived each time I make an exposure and remember to reinsert the darkslide before removing the filmholder from the camera...