Personal meditations on the purpose or end goal/game of photography:

I’m lucky enough that I’ve been in the photo game for over a decade, and I’m in an interesting spot:

1. I’ve accomplished all of my photography related goals (become self employed, travel the world, work with big camera brands, get sponsorships, make money, buy all the equipment I wanted, have solo exhibitions, prints, books, etc).
2. I’ve become internet famous for photography
3. I’ve achieved more zen, peace, and self-wisdom about why I make photos.

Now comes the question:

What’s the point of it all?

Specifically:

What new goals, epic photographic visions, or unpaved ground should I work towards?

Beyond just accumulating more fame, followers, money, likes

It seems that most photographers are stuck on the social media treadmill: just trying to get more likes, followers, brand endorsements and deals, and money.

Shouldn’t there be more to photography than this?

The art world isn’t more enlightened

Then the more “Art” photographers are on a similar treadmill, the art world treadmill: get more famous institutions to represent you, meet more fancy folks, have your artworks sell for more money, get accepted into more prestigious institutions, have cucumber sandwiches with the queen, etc.

What do you do once you’ve achieved all of your life goals?

Other interesting goals I’ve achieved:

1. Financial independence
2. Location independence
3. Digital nomadic lifestyle
4. Money in the bank
5. Wrote books and produced courses, taught workshops, made videos that I wanted to

I genuinely feel if I died tonight, I would have no regrets.

But I’m only 31 years old. What next? Certainly I don’t want to be just doing the same thing over and over, just to entertain sisphyus.

Photography technology company

My next frontier is this:

Building up ARS, my photography feedback technology startup.

I think perhaps the future of photography is building new technologies, tools, and utilities which can make the life of a photographer easier, more productive, more creative, and more inspired. We have reached “peak image quality” with digital medium format cameras. We are tired and bored of this Instagram social media treadmill.

Perhaps ARS can be the future for photographers and visual artists, in giving honest and real feedback, while also receiving it.

Empowering yourself and others

In photography at this point, I’ve mastered (most) of my personal aesthetics. Perhaps from this point forward, I should just focus on empowering other photographers and visual artists to help THEM achieve their personal maximum.

So perhaps this can be a long-term goal for you as a photographer:

Achieve your life goals in photography, then help others also achieve their life goals in photography.

Just a practical thought. More turbo thoughts on photography, art, and life to come.

SHOOT ON!

ERIC