Let's talk about this - why did blogs ever get so popular? Because people were tired of trying to make their work, their vision, their interpretation and inspiration of art fit within a very small box of what magazines were willing to publish.
More often than not I flip through a magazine and I leave feeling like every editorial in it was shot by the same photographer.
This is not a good thing.
“
We should not be supporting a trend of everyone’s work looking the same. That is the death of style.
”
Perhaps this is coming from a far too personal place where as a photographer who loves magazines - the experience of them, the art in layouts and its intermingling with the art of text, how it can transport you to a whole new world that I have always craved to get lost in.
And now I'm in New York, every photographers dream. Where magazines are a dime a dozen and pushing yourself creatively is supposed to be served with every meal but as I have learned in my year and a half here that is not always the case.
People get comfortable with what they know and when you show them something new or strange or conceptual as opposed to spoon-fed they stare at you blankly and say "that's cool" with an air of hesitation and confusion in their voice.
What I've come to realize is that people will choose to not react or interact with new ideas (even if they personally like the idea) until someone with "clout" or someone that "matters" puts their stamp of approval on it first.
This has spawned into a whole other series of issues in the social media reality we live in such as people not liking your work because you only have 1,000 followers on instagram instead of 25K. So thus you must not be good because we all know how Amber Rose and the Kardashians have such artistic credibility.
All this said after much time spent away learning all of these things I've decided that we shouldn't have to wait for our art to be seen until an outside source says it's time or it's good enough.
Art should be shared with no restrictions. It should never seek for validation and it definitely shouldn't be sitting in a folder on your computer hidden from the world because no on responded to your submission emails.
So I'm saying fuck it - it's time to stop waiting for approval. The blog is back.
All photos were taken by Toni Smailagic as we decided to say fuck it and turn Williamsburg into our playground
For art's sake.