Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: January 11, 2009

harp, stay sharp till the bottom of the glass

so i've been having a conversation with a photography student recently who mentioned that his tutors have led him and his fellow students to believe that 50% of them will be earning £100,000 a year shortly after graduating and that if they get into advertising photography, they can earn millions.

HHAHHAHAhahahahahahahahaha...
only it's not funny: these 'tutors' should be ridiculed, publicily.

sure, a few people can earn a lot of money out of photography
but the majority of photography students won't even end up as photographers.

i graduated in 1994.
of my course i believe there are only 3 out of 40 of us still shooting.

the boom in photography as an industry was in education.
when i did my BA photography, film and video arts, there were only a few colleges offering courses.
now every college in the uk runs photography options.

so there's a mass of visually literate wannabe photographers graduating every year with no jobs to support them.
which obviously causes untold problems with desperate people undercutting each other to work etc...

and in any case even without the influx of 'talent' all media industries are collapsing/ disintergrating and can't even support those of us already in the business NOT because of the credit crunch but because of 'digital' and it's many applications.

fucking ridiculous.

so: i salute any of us who are able to make a living out of what we do (and some of us still LOVE).

this isn't about the money for me anyway (as i told sean ellis in 1995 after he said 'i'll race you to your first million £ and whoever wins takes the other on a crusie".

i make pictures because i have to.
been lucky enought ot get paid for it along the way.

but the industry is changing so rapidly, it's harder to make good than it's ever been.
i wouldn't want to be a younger photographer just starting out in the business now.
like i've said before i really DON'T want maximum and Z to follow in my footsteps.

see my 'where will end?..nobody knows' story (for 125) to get a view on what i'm talkng about.

sorry to harp on.

in more entertaining news...
it's less cold today but everything's still frozen.

if your screen's not set too bright, these vapour trails look to me like a self harmer's scars.
perhaps that's exactly what they are?

a man came to fix the electric gates (which had died in a deep frozen circuit board? misadventure)

neil and claire came back to borrow stratford for a cold, coastal walk and stayed for roast lamb lunch.

i paid maximum £1 to eat a roast potato.
this novel approach to a fussy eater's daft logic (he likes chips but roast potatos taste different because they're a different shape) may well backfire on me before too long.
but i reckon if i can get him to eat enough potatoes before he works out he's onto a good thing, he might come round to my way of thinking.

made bread.
shutting down the farm for an early night:
children are in bed.
neil diamond's playing on the stereo.
just about to sit in a rocking chair next to the roaring log fire and read a book.
sounds very 'old man' doesn't it?
bliss...