My notion of the "real" artist is simply a view that is mine alone. It does mean that you are a good or bad artist, but rather implies that you embrace the power of commercialism to help define your work. Being a "real" artist is different then being a commercial photographer because commercialism is not the only influence that is used to guide the development of your work. There can be many other influences as well including other artist works and of course the artists own personal experiences.
The beauty of commercialism or the production of salable images is that your audience becomes a bigger circle then just yourself. There is a big difference when one votes with his pocket book verses cheap commentary from the critics. Commercialism keeps you grounded in the esthetic values of the community that your work sells to. It is brutally honest in nature, and many artist shrink from that kind of exposure and challenge.
Yes, there are artist who do achieve fame and recognition through just the sheer number of venues that they exhibit such as university galleries or contemporary museums without ever selling any of their work until at some point there is a belief that they have name recognition. At that point what sells is not the work itself, but rather the name. Strip the name from the work and the art then becomes worthless.
What follows is my view of the journey of becoming a "real" artist.
A "real" artist will never bother to exhibit his work in a place that is not a serious commercial venue driven soley by sales. He will develop the skills to find a market that his work will sell to and then exhibit his work in real commercial venues that can reach his market. It is important to realize that the art and market must be compatible with one another for this to work. At first he may not even be accepted by such venues until his work improves enough such that he is accepted. Even then once his work is excepted nothing may sell until one day his work further improves enough so that a sale is realized. However, most often the initial sale is for to little money, and certainly not enough for him to put food on the table. So he continues to struggle to improve until one day his work begins to sell well at respectable prices. It makes no difference whether he signs the art or not. It just sells. The art now begins to resinate with the esthetic values of its market, and people vote readily for the art with their hard earned dollars.
The process of becoming a "real" artist is iterative in nature and can take years to perfect. It is all about a human struggle of discovery and improvement. It is my belief that when one becomes a "real" artist, I can assure you his work is profound and distinctive nature independent of its form and style.
Please note that I am making broad generalities, and there will always be many exceptions. However, it is my belief that there are two basic categories for photography. One is influenced by commercialism and the production of salable of art that I call “real” art, and in retrospect, a better name might be “real life” art. The other category is about the evolution of art in the absence of commercialism.
It is my personal belief that the later lacks “real” accountability and corrupts the very nature of the artist and his work. I also believe that the the power of “real” artist lies not in his art as most would think, but rather with the intimate dialogue he has developed with his patrons. This dialogue dose not exist for those who are not “real life” artist and the lack of such a dialogue can in itself question the relevancy of such art.
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