A thought:
What if the best thing you could do for yourself and humanity is to create the most epic art-works you are capable of?
For example, don’t think of yourself as a photographer. Think of yourself as an artist. As an artist, it seems that our only duty in life is to create the most epic art-works we are capable of.
Life is short, art is long
You will die. But your artworks have the ability to outlive you.
We will die, but our ideas, art creations, and thoughts can continue to have a ripple effect on future humanity.
For example, I am still deeply influenced by the thoughts, artworks, and philosophies of those who have come before me, but have died. This include Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and many others.
Make art for yourself
I know that for myself as a photographer-artist, I have made the best art-photos when I was simply trying to please myself. Not trying to impress others. Having ‘creative isolation‘ from the online photography social media world. Deleting my Instagram. Building more of my own blog/website platform, instead of becoming a ‘digital sharecropper‘ on the land of others.
Simple ideas:
- Delete Instagram, stop using social media, and start building your own website/blog. Build a domain with 1and1.com and install wordpress.org, and start posting everything to your own website/server/platform.
- Creative isolation is good: As Nietzsche says, put at least the skin of 300 years between you and your contemporaries. Think uber long-term. Strive to make a great legacy for yourself. Think after your death. Avoid shallow and short-term gains.
- Make photos which put a smile on your face, and photos which you consider beautiful and elegant. You are the ultimate judge of your own images.
