Self-Reliance

One of the hardest thing in photography isn’t to learn how to use the camera or define your vision. It’s learning to trust your judgment when nobody is around to help you. This woman walked right in front of me as I was taking my photo to take hers I started photography in the early-ish internet. The place was very different from what it is now. Forums were the main form of mass communication (IRC doesn’t really count, it was too specialised), people gave constructive feedback, and nobody was performing for an algorithm. There was no pressure to post all the time, no instant opinion on you and what you do, and growing a following wasn’t a thing or a goal in itself. You could post a photo and wait a week to get a single comment. That was normal. That slow pace had one huge advantage: you had to build self-reliance. You couldn’t expect instant feedback to know what pleases viewers. Feedback was of course important, and I was looking for it because I started from absolute zero knowledge…