What is your philoshophy on sharing your work? Do you share ONLY your best images? Do you share only one image on a certain frequency? Or do you share multiple images, whenever inspiration strikes? Do you even have a philosophy you follow for sharing? Where did it come from?
I realized I DO have a philosophy for sharing my work yesterday, when discussing this with another photographer friend. He was talking about the idea of sharing ONLY your best work online, something that I’ve heard many times from different professional photographers. The idea is that you cull the images down to the best of the best and only share those.
There are things I agree with in this philosophy, namely the “culling” of the many to the few. I think one of our best learning opportunities is in the review and selection of our “best” photographs. Being able to distinguish them, and to be able to consciously say why, helps us to grow our vision. The next time we are out photographing we will bring the learning from the previous session’s review, helping us to create even better photographs. It’s a never-ending cycle that builds. I think of it as a spiral: Each time you come around the spiral to photograph again, you are in a slightly different, slightly better (higher) place on the spiral if you work hard to review and select your best.
In general I don’t follow the “share only the best” philosophy, though, and that’s because regular sharing has become part of my personal practice in a different way. It’s not about sharing for feedback or to grow an audience, it’s about a regular practice of creating and what I learn from it. This practice started long ago, while in Italy, when I was being badgered by a friend to update my blog. I didn’t want to write about daily life or activities, but I could get myself interested to share a favorite photograph each day and writing a little bit about it. Holy Moly, did that change everything! I learned about my photographic eye, and myself, in amazing ways. It became an essential part of my creative process. Over time, it became more and more about writing from the heart and choosing the right photograph to complement my words, than choosing the “best” photograph to share that day.
Recently, my daily creative practice has changed, but sharing is still a big part of it. Even though I write almost daily on the blog and this is an important part of my creative practice, my daily “goal” for creating has shifted to creating at least one new, edited image a day from my mobile work. Then I share. Sharing is the completion of the process; the check in the box that says I fulfilled my personal goal. In a way I’m doing sort of a 365 project, but with editing instead of photographing every day, and without strict adherence to the “365” part. Whether it’s photographing, or painting or writing every day, it’s all creating, anyway, regardless of what type it is. It’s all useful for learning and growing.
What I’m sharing every day this way is not necessarily my “best” work. I find it takes some time to tell what’s “best.” Sometimes I look back at the things I’ve shared and am horrified. I liked it, maybe even loved it, at the time, or I wouldn’t have shared it. The ones that are the “best” are the ones I love days, weeks, months later. Sometimes, I know that in the moment I’ve created it, that it’s one of my best. Other times, a “best” image has to grow on me. The history I build through creating and then sharing helps me to learn more about what’s “best,” while also providing a record of my development over time.
I don’t share everything I create, believe me. There is some stuff in the moment of creating I know is awful and leave it on the hard drive. I have lots of failed experiments. They serve their purpose, helping me learn what does NOT work. I also do cull significantly from my original photographs, to get to the images I use for my creations. I can’t imagine trying to creatively edit every photograph I take. Whew. I wouldn’t have the time, or the inspiration.
It was an interesting conversation, yesterday, as we discussed this topic. I was figuring it out on the fly, as I realized I had a different motivation for my sharing than he did. It reminded me that each of us will have different motivations in our art, and I can’t assume yours will be the same as mine. Each person can develop their own personal rules and philosophy for sharing, like anything else. Some may share for feedback, while others share for connection. For me, it’s primarily part of a daily creative practice that keeps me learning and growing.
What is your philosophy on sharing?
