Can you guys critique my website/portfolio of my large format photography work?

[xkaes]

As has been mentioned, it all depends on what the goal is.

If the goal is to make a living selling photos in art galleries, etc., the chances are up there with winning the lottery. You're not only competing with photographers with colleges degrees, and decades of experience and exposure, you are competing against plumbers, real estate agents, nurses, chemists, and truck drivers who are part-time photographers, too!

If the goal is to do "photographic work" for someone else, a degree can help you out-compete other applicants, but I found my photography classes at a local Community College more helpful than my photography classes at a local State University's Art Department.

And if the goal is to open your own shop/gallery/business/whatever -- everybody and their mother seems to be doing this nowadays -- as suggested, get a minor in Accounting, so if your business fails you can still put food on the table. Then you can competing against all the plumbers, real estate agents, nurses, chemists, and truck drivers -- and yes, shutterbugs on this Forum -- who want to sell photos in art galleries, etc.

[Pieter]

Something not mentioned yet is the importance of writing as related to fine art photography. Many photographers rely on grants the be able to work on their projects, and writing is essential for grant applications. It should be part of any decent MFA program. Judging from your website, you need to improve that aspect, being able to write convincingly and interestingly about your work and yourself, rather than just list skills and experience.

[xkaes]

Back to "art-speak" again. As mentioned, you don't have to actually use it in real life, but it helps if you are reasonably fluent.

[Pieter]

Back to "art-speak" again. As mentioned, you don't have to actually use it in real life, but it helps if you are reasonably fluent.

You can write about your work in plain English as long as you can communicate what it is you are trying to accomplish. Art-speak just confuses matters. It is usually employed by those who have nothing to say.

[djdister]

It sounds like your goal is to make a living as a fine art photographer, but I may be filling in the blanks incorrectly. In addition to the advice from this forum, I suggest you talk in person to those who have accomplished what you are wanting to do. Secondarily, talk to the people who would support your desired vocation - gallery owners, museums, art exhibitors, and arts patrons (people who offer grants).

[Daniel Stone]

Hi Kris,

I have no personal experience with the "art scene", other than being an observer, or with the educational segment, other than having spent a rather disgruntled 13yrs shoved into a desk in a classroom
However, I have known many people who went the "MFA route", and none of them have landed where they thought they wanted to go. I was 18 when I started with photography seriously, and I thought to myself "I want to be a photographer". So I landed a job working at Samy's in Pasadena(back when they were on Walnut by Parsons), and that experience selling film, paper and accessories taught me a heckuva lot. I was interacting with Art Center students every day, along with many professors. Lots of PCC students too(of which I was one myself shortly after my 18mos at Samys), but all the "students" seemed to share one trait: they had no money. I was considering an application to Art Center, as I had read great things about it and all, but I didn't know what I know now, 13yrs later. The MFA route, unless you absolutely want to teach, is pretty much a dead duck. With the internet, you can get exposure through other means, and with c*vid still shitting on in-person interactions like gallery showings(at least here in LA for the time being), what is the purpose of an MFA for you? I spent much of my 20s working as an assistant, then digital tech, on jobs here in LA, so I got to speak with lots of photographers who had MFA's, some who just had loads of grit and knew how to work, etc. The best ones, IMO, were self-taught realists who didn't bring frills to set. They were fun, down to earth people who cut their teeth assisting or in some other role before jumping to handling the camera.

I ask these things, because after reading your bio, I believe all men have a purpose that give them a drive necessary to get out of bed in the morning. Sadly, many never realize that, because they listen to the world, not themselves. Will an MFA help you pay your bills, or will it put you into a financial hole that will take years and loads of stress to relieve yourself from? Is an MFA going to give you extra skills to make better photographs, or is it more of a dick-measuring contest with other "artists" who look down their nose at people without a piece of paper framed on the wall?

There are plenty of terrific photographers who have a "day job" but also have time(and funding) to express themselves through their photography, without resorting to credit lines, IOU's and living in roach-filled apartments they'll never own.
You're a little older than me it looks like, but having a job outside of my passion allows me to really explore that passion, without feeling a need to produce for others. YMMV of course. The last thing I want to see others plagued with, is debt.

Lastly, consider your life goals as a whole outside of photography: Do you want(or already have?) a family? Do you want to own a home, or are you ok with living off tinned beans and food stamps while you get your MFA and until it's paid off? Some might say that's mean and untrue, but I can count on more than two hands people I know who went the "higher education route" instead of learning a valuable trade that is actually needed by others in real life. They're all broke, most are living with parents, have no real purpose, or are on UBI. A small example of the opposite: a friend of mine from high school, like myself, barely scratched through. He went to work with his dad, who had a 1-man plumbing business. Well, fast forward to today, he's now the president of the company, a licensed plumber with multiple certifications, and has 9 crews of 2 men/crew out making him money 6 days/week. He still goes out to larger jobs, but more as a foreman. Most of his employees are older than him, but they rely on him to bring the work in. He has time to dedicate to his wife and son(with a second on the way), and he just gave all his employees a 15% raise once he paid off his house in 2021(5yrs after signing the mortgage). He's 33, and here in LA. It's called hard work, and cash money talks. Putting up with other peoples sh*t, literally, can pay really well. His hobby is woodworking, but he has found great enjoyment in training young people in plumbing too. Win/win. He's now getting into social media since he found out he can get get gifted tools to "review" haha.

Ansel Adams shot a lot of commercial work, but that gets glossed over by many when speaking about him. But that's how he kept his lights on, belly full, and gas in his tank during many of his years before getting noticed later in life.

[Pieter]

I guess it all comes down to why do you want an MFA? You don't need one to be a professional, commercial or fine art photographer. You do need one to teach in most institutions. It looks good on a resumé. But in the end, if you feel the need to be in an academic art program to get yourself to the next level and can afford it, go for it. Your work is good but you could use some help editing--if you have the bucks a consultant might be able to give you some good advice there. But don't think the MFA is some sort of golden ticket to success, and don't go down the rabbit hole of getting into big debt for it.

Many fine artists I know live on a shoestring if they don't have some other source of income. Being good is no guarantee you can thrive financially in the art world.

[Bernice Loui]

1992 Stanford MFA story.. Ken Miller.

Back in 1992, met Ken Miller who was working on his MFA at Stanford. We hit it off good. At that time he was working on his MFA project, a book that eventually got published. BTW, all of Ken's work in this book was done using a 8x10 Kodak Master view with a 5x7 back and 14" Kodak commercial Ektar.
https://www.amazon.com/Open-All-Nigh.../dp/0879516488

Growing up in San Francisco, we spent plenty of time discussing the TL district in SF and lots more. Went to his opening at Stanford.
https://news.stanford.edu/pr/92/920201Arc2442.html

Ken moved out of state and eventually did wedding photography, like an awful lot of other photographers.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/avnz...ith-ken-miller

Ken was one of those art folks that aided in my art education. This was the era when images made by Robert Mapplethorpe got shoved into the public light and with all funding to the NEA being forced into question by politics.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histo...won-180956810/

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/ar...an-issue-56124

This remains to this day a very personal experience having lived it and being around artist that endured it.

Art be it Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Literature, Poetry or any means of creative expression is an extension of National social-cultural identity (beyond lots can be discussed about this).

IMO, what the academia route can do is aid in access to that world of art, there after grads are completely subject to the whims of their audience. What any artist must have to survive is to cultivate a following, audience, supporters to allow them to put a roof over their head and food on the table. IMO, it was easier to make a living as a photographer back in them days as those willing to pay for images are very different today ... Think-consider over 300 million images are up loaded to the web daily. This dilutes/discounts the value of images in the eyes of the masses on a mass scale. IMO, this is another result of digital imaging and IMO, part of the reason why alternative process images via view camera images have come into fashion.

Flat refuse to critique photographs or art for means of expression of others as critique is effectively imposing another's ego and frame-work upon the core of another creative personality, they have their own voice and needs the kind of support and means to help them develop their own unique voice and means of creative expression. Not different than cultivating and fully supporting the innate inborn gifts children are born with. The greater challenge, does culture-society have an appreciation for their inborn-innate gifts.. ? .. and what defines the value of innate-inborn gifts within any individual?

Keep in mind, much of Western European society-culture is Hedonic driven, Hedonic based...


Bernice

[Bernice Loui]

Many Science Ph.Ds struggle for funding in ways no different than Artist. The grant writing skills are much the same, with much the same struggles (again, much to yak about here).

What does this say-tell about culture & society_?_


Bernice

Many photographers rely on grants the be able to work on their projects, and writing is essential for grant applications. It should be part of any decent MFA program. Judging from your website, you need to improve that aspect, being able to write convincingly and interestingly about your work and yourself, rather than just list skills and experience.

[Tin Can]

Agree!