The Tree of Truth. Jim's Scrap yard. Mojave, September 2024

The only way to know good photography is by looking at what has gone before. Of course, there is plenty of good stuff around today, but there is also a tremendous amount of crap one has to wade through first. In a time before the internet work was shown in galleries, books and magazines. It was edited and thought about, but more importantly, once it was in print, it became final.

Before digital, if you had work published or in a gallery, there was a real sense of achievement. These days digital imagery online, although never as fulfilling, it can still give a sense of achievement, and there in lies the problem. Constantly publishing work online can give is a false sense of security as it makes us think we are better than we are. This is especially true with the likes of Instagram where there is no dislike button, a concept no better than a Sweetheart Conversation Candy.

I knew a good photographer who flooded online platforms with their work recently and as a result amassed tens of thousands of followers. After 25 years of shooting, the photographer was finally getting noticed and the ego began to grow. Everything was fine until one, and only one, person commented that they really didn’t like a particular image claiming it wasn’t as good as their earlier analogue work. The photographer was devastated by the comment despite having hundreds of likes. Why? Because he knew deep down that the image really wasn’t that good.