M
Monkeywrench
Guest
Backstory: Before I rode trains, hitchhiked, knew of this site or met all of the cool people that made my time on the road what it was--I was a photographer/art student in Washington DC. I shot local bands and obnoxiously "hip" events in the city. It's just what I loved and know how to do.
Fast forward a couple years, and I still keep in contact with a lot of people I knew in the art community. Recently, after discussing my trip back and forth across the country--I've been told by several people that I should've taken pictures and that had I kept them, that there would be open gallery space for me.
I've even been asked to put together a coffee-table type art book of all the rad people I met on the road.
Now, here's the reason I didn't originally do that in the first place.
I simply found it to be exploitative.
Even though I still carried 35mm film camera, instead of my professional DSLR; I felt as if my story and the stories of other kids on the road were our own. Exclusively special to us as a culture. But towards the end of my last trip, I began taking more and more pictures of people and gaining not only a little more exposure, but the appreciation of a lot of my subjects. Travelers who once yelled at me for taking their pictures, and blowing up the "lifestyle" were sending me messages on Facebook thanking me and asking for their own prints or copies.
I have a concept. Gallery space and a book I'd like to put together. I have an artist statement and a medium and this wouldn't be another polaroid-kid type deal. If I were take pictures of my travels, and the traveling kids involved (with their permission, naturally).. do you think that would be exploitative?
In an age where there are whole websites, and countless photos of travelers online (Flickr, Tumblr, etc) do you still think that a photo project of travelers (without the biased horseshit articles and stories) would be exploitative? Do you think it would damage the community at all?
I don't think so at all. But that's just me. I'm very interested in all of your sayings.
Fast forward a couple years, and I still keep in contact with a lot of people I knew in the art community. Recently, after discussing my trip back and forth across the country--I've been told by several people that I should've taken pictures and that had I kept them, that there would be open gallery space for me.
I've even been asked to put together a coffee-table type art book of all the rad people I met on the road.
Now, here's the reason I didn't originally do that in the first place.
I simply found it to be exploitative.
Even though I still carried 35mm film camera, instead of my professional DSLR; I felt as if my story and the stories of other kids on the road were our own. Exclusively special to us as a culture. But towards the end of my last trip, I began taking more and more pictures of people and gaining not only a little more exposure, but the appreciation of a lot of my subjects. Travelers who once yelled at me for taking their pictures, and blowing up the "lifestyle" were sending me messages on Facebook thanking me and asking for their own prints or copies.
I have a concept. Gallery space and a book I'd like to put together. I have an artist statement and a medium and this wouldn't be another polaroid-kid type deal. If I were take pictures of my travels, and the traveling kids involved (with their permission, naturally).. do you think that would be exploitative?
In an age where there are whole websites, and countless photos of travelers online (Flickr, Tumblr, etc) do you still think that a photo project of travelers (without the biased horseshit articles and stories) would be exploitative? Do you think it would damage the community at all?
I don't think so at all. But that's just me. I'm very interested in all of your sayings.