So how do you accept that nobody cares about your photography?

anycolourfloyd said:

Just find the right community, rather than trying to make friends or family be interested when they're not.

I post my average photos to the local bird and wildlife Facebook groups and people love it - it's the common interest in the animal.

Find a community that overlaps with your photographic interest

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Al D said:

Hoxton Bridge said:

Al D said:

Hoxton Bridge said:

mapachebasura said:

I feel like people completely missed the actual intention of this, which is not to tell me or others how much you don't care, how much we shouldn't care because you don't care. It's got some Big Libertarian Energy. Some people thrive on approval, some people are communal in nature and want community, some people don't care for approval but want to be acknowledged, some people want fame, some people want to share what they are saying with others, some people explicitly dislike fame. There's a big conversation that doesn't begin and end with "well, stop," or "this doesn't apply to me." It's boring. You're boring. We get it, you live an emotionally solitary life. I hope you don't have any sort of role as a parent, therapist or mentor.

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intriguing response. I'm not entirely convinced that not bothering too much what people think of one's work, equates to not caring if 'nobody' likes one's work. The former does not reflect an atomized existence or indeed some form of extreme libertarianism which I interpret from your use as a complete lack of empathy. Maybe what you are lamenting is less the loss of admiration/interests in your work, but the breakdown of a social and collective community, where caring for what somebody does is an essential ethic. If the latter is the case, I wonder if we (narrowly defined) were ever like that, and if we were, it is a bird that has sadly flown away.

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If this is the case, if "nobody cares", in a general sense, then how do you explain Instagram?

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Fair point, although it's easy to appear interested from a distance, and double-tapping on random images for friends is not quite the same thing I would argue. It' more of a reflex than anything else, and is cost (in a social sense) free.

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'Someone' is not 'nobody'. Anyone who takes the time to look at a photo and like it, however easy it was to do this, shows that they do care.

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mapachebasura said:

Truth is, unless it's a great photo of the person individually, nobody cares about my work. I used to be in an art community who vaguely did, with friends taking photos of more prestigious people (niche musicians/visual artists) which get a lot of love.

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mapachebasura said:

Mostly though, not much in return even after a couple small shows. I'm not making a career of it though a few photos were published. But it didn't really go anywhere - maybe it could have if I had made decisions differently, but I was prioritizing other things in my life. Downside is that I don't even have people who will look at my photos anymore, even if it's just to critique them.

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mapachebasura said:

I know I take odd photos of non-marketable things. I guess I'd call it 'whatever-the-opposite-of fine art' photography? I think they're aesthetically pleasing and you can extrapolate something meaningful (but not profound or "deep") and work well as a series.

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mapachebasura said:

But don't have the WOW factor that people are drawn to. Now that we see thousands of photos a day, that feels pretty essential to get any sort of acknowledgement even from people you know personally.

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mapachebasura said:

I'm sure other people relate. End of the day, I take those photos because I like them. I like what they evoke to me, I like the memory of taking them. But it does feel like a bummer to show people photos and not even my friends care.

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mapachebasura said:

I imagine all of you fancy yourself sheepdog lone wolves standing alone in the wind not caring about what others think when you post my close-crop red tail hawk or mountainscape, but for those that AREN'T that way, feel free to dump your feelings here and how you process it.

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David Pavlich said:

I've read through about half of the responses. Do you have a webpage with your work on it? You don't have anything uploaded here. It would be a lot easier to see why you're getting tepid responses if we could see your work.

Here's something you might try; make up some prints of your favorite shots and sell them. I've sold hundreds of prints, so I know there are people out there that like what I do.

*Do the math' your age + the thousands of images taken = hundreds sold... mmmmmm

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Leica Eye said:

anycolourfloyd said:

Just find the right community, rather than trying to make friends or family be interested when they're not.

I post my average photos to the local bird and wildlife Facebook groups and people love it - it's the common interest in the animal.

Find a community that overlaps with your photographic interest

Click to expand...

Thats totally off subject - So you go looking for admiration !! L

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anycolourfloyd said:

Leica Eye said:

anycolourfloyd said:

Just find the right community, rather than trying to make friends or family be interested when they're not.

I post my average photos to the local bird and wildlife Facebook groups and people love it - it's the common interest in the animal.

Find a community that overlaps with your photographic interest

Click to expand...

Thats totally off subject - So you go looking for admiration !! L

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I read the subject as 'I wish people I knew were interested in my photos' and I suggested finding a group with a common interest that would be interested in looking at the photos.

What did I miss, what part if that was off subject?

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marcio_napoli said:

Boomanbb said:

The reality is most people just aren’t that interesting or talented and we should stop thinking that we are. If you want people to like your untalented work you are going to have to produce work they like, not what you like or think they should like.

if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

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Unfortunately what hurts even more is that life is hardly ever fair.

If things were down to be decent at something, that would be super fair, but that's not how things happen.

Look how many mediocre YT channels flourish (photography channels if we stay on subject).

Countless film photography channels, for example.

At least we know a bunch of them flourish because of film itself, not because of the quality of photography displayed there.

Doors open in life because you were just there, at the right time, at the right spot, and grabbed a chance dancing in front of you.

I've seen that myself more times than I can tell.

It's hardly ever because of sheer talent.

The notion we succed in life because of being good is long in the tooth.

I wish I could find shots from that talented photographer I told of in my previous post.

You guys wouldn't believe someone like him was having a hard time finding jobs.

EDIT:

Found some on google:













Photographer: Marcellus Kimontait

It must be said, obviously, this chat happened a few years ago, have no idea how he is now.

Really hope he's having opportunities now up to his talent level.

Best regards,

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Papa48 said:

marcio_napoli said:

Boomanbb said:

The reality is most people just aren’t that interesting or talented and we should stop thinking that we are. If you want people to like your untalented work you are going to have to produce work they like, not what you like or think they should like.

if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately what hurts even more is that life is hardly ever fair.

If things were down to be decent at something, that would be super fair, but that's not how things happen.

Look how many mediocre YT channels flourish (photography channels if we stay on subject).

Countless film photography channels, for example.

At least we know a bunch of them flourish because of film itself, not because of the quality of photography displayed there.

Doors open in life because you were just there, at the right time, at the right spot, and grabbed a chance dancing in front of you.

I've seen that myself more times than I can tell.

It's hardly ever because of sheer talent.

The notion we succed in life because of being good is long in the tooth.

I wish I could find shots from that talented photographer I told of in my previous post.

You guys wouldn't believe someone like him was having a hard time finding jobs.

EDIT:

Found some on google:













Photographer: Marcellus Kimontait

It must be said, obviously, this chat happened a few years ago, have no idea how he is now.

Really hope he's having opportunities now up to his talent level.

Best regards,

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Sorry, but to me most of those models look like they've been drugged.

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marcio_napoli said:

Papa48 said:

marcio_napoli said:

Boomanbb said:

The reality is most people just aren’t that interesting or talented and we should stop thinking that we are. If you want people to like your untalented work you are going to have to produce work they like, not what you like or think they should like.

if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately what hurts even more is that life is hardly ever fair.

If things were down to be decent at something, that would be super fair, but that's not how things happen.

Look how many mediocre YT channels flourish (photography channels if we stay on subject).

Countless film photography channels, for example.

At least we know a bunch of them flourish because of film itself, not because of the quality of photography displayed there.

Doors open in life because you were just there, at the right time, at the right spot, and grabbed a chance dancing in front of you.

I've seen that myself more times than I can tell.

It's hardly ever because of sheer talent.

The notion we succed in life because of being good is long in the tooth.

I wish I could find shots from that talented photographer I told of in my previous post.

You guys wouldn't believe someone like him was having a hard time finding jobs.

EDIT:

Found some on google:













Photographer: Marcellus Kimontait

It must be said, obviously, this chat happened a few years ago, have no idea how he is now.

Really hope he's having opportunities now up to his talent level.

Best regards,

Click to expand...

Sorry, but to me most of those models look like they've been drugged.

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Let me clear that out.

As a fashion photographer myself, I've seen that far too many times: this genre suffers repulsion, hostility before it's even judged by its actual merits.

So the lighting counts for nothing? And the production value, the posing (which is excelent, despite that superior, put down comment), the location, the art direction, etc?

Nothing that counts, because it's fashion, right?

Being fashion, of course it's a bunch of arrogant @-holes, so let's just put them down.

I know it sounds impossible to believe, but not everyone in this field are major A-holes (maybe 90% of the field but not 100% lol).

And some of us are here because we think it's an awesome showcase of photography, lots of talents are working in sync to make these shots possible.

In my own case, I couldn't care less for what's trending regarding to clothes, or how many selfies these models upload per second to their instagrams, but I love me some good strobe lighting and high quality production value.

Fashion, in regards to how many talents are working in sync on every shoot, is among the closest genres there is in photography to filmmaking (my 2nd love btw).

But every now and there someone just has to ignore all that, and put all those talents down, just because it's popular to hate fashion.

Best regards,

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Leica Eye said:

anycolourfloyd said:

Leica Eye said:

anycolourfloyd said:

Just find the right community, rather than trying to make friends or family be interested when they're not.

I post my average photos to the local bird and wildlife Facebook groups and people love it - it's the common interest in the animal.

Find a community that overlaps with your photographic interest

Click to expand...

Thats totally off subject - So you go looking for admiration !! L

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I read the subject as 'I wish people I knew were interested in my photos' and I suggested finding a group with a common interest that would be interested in looking at the photos.

What did I miss, what part if that was off subject?

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Thread Title:- So how do you accept that nobody cares about your photography?

Your Reply :-

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anycolourfloyd said:

Leica Eye said:

anycolourfloyd said:

Leica Eye said:

anycolourfloyd said:

Just find the right community, rather than trying to make friends or family be interested when they're not.

I post my average photos to the local bird and wildlife Facebook groups and people love it - it's the common interest in the animal.

Find a community that overlaps with your photographic interest

Click to expand...

Thats totally off subject - So you go looking for admiration !! L

Click to expand...

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anycolourfloyd said:

anycolourfloyd said:

anycolourfloyd said:

I read the subject as 'I wish people I knew were interested in my photos' and I suggested finding a group with a common interest that would be interested in looking at the photos.

What did I miss, what part if that was off subject?

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Thread Title:- So how do you accept that nobody cares about your photography?

Your Reply :-

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I apologise, I'm an engineer and a project manager- I naturally leap to solution space.

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anycolourfloyd said:

I can't understand why somebody would rather live with a problem or moan about it than fix it but everybody is different.

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Greenville said:

My FIL was a very good photographer. I was tasked with scanning his slides, a good number from WWII - He was a Navy Chaplin stationed in Hawaii. Nice photos. First I sorted, and only scanned the slides of people. He took some great landscapes and photos, but no one in the family cared for the images without people they could identify.

He later became a surgeon, but did not marry or have kids until his mid 40's. So around maybe 5% of his pre-marriage slides where scanned. Most his family slides were scanned, but unfortunately as the family got older he must of tired of taking pictures.

My wife's grandparents were even less interesting. They traveled a lot. I doubt I bothered to scan 1% of their slides. I did let the family know there were many slides, but not one person was interested in looking at the non family gathering images.

I have been careful to organize our family images. I take a lot of pictures, but over the last few years the achieve has been organized and cleansed. I don't want my family to be overwhelmed and throw away all the pictures because they can't find the important ones. Sorting older images from my family and in-laws has helped me realize how my family will value or not value my images when I am gone.

The most important thing I have found when sharing images is brevity. Most people, if interested only want to see one or two pictures. People are flooded with images these days. Everyone is bombarded with pictures people share with their phones. Only a few will care for your latest travel pictures, less about your pet. Abstract photos have probably the smallest audience. If you need validation for your pictures, you need to find others who have a similar interest in your type of pictures.

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John_A_G said:

If you want to share your hobby with others you have to know your audience. As you mentioned and others have chimed in, unless your extremely talented, people aren't gong to care about your hobby enough to view and comment on your photos.

So, if you want your friends to care, you have to show them photos of subjects they find interesting. I show certain people bird photos because those people like bird photos. If I show the other 99% of my friends/relatives bird photos they won't care.

Now, that's also because none of my current friends/family are hobbyist photographers. It sounds like you used to have a group of friends that either appreciated your photography or were just generally very kind and made the appropriate comments to indicate to you they appreciate it. I don't mean that in a bad way - I mean part of being a good friend is occasionally listening to a part of your friend's life that you don't care about but THEY do. Even still, you have to know your audience and understand that - showing them hundreds of photos or constantly showing photos and expecting feedback or praise is an unrealistic expectation.

When I used to run a sports photography side business I didn't bother showing my wife 99% of the photos - she could care less. Unless it was a family member - then she cared - but only because the subject was a family member.

When we go on a family vacation I'll make a photo book afterwards. We love all the photos. But, if I were going to post something on social media for a wider audience I would post only 1 or 2 because my friends/family aren't interested in most of the photos.

So, you need to understand your audience and adjust who you share with and how much you share based on THEIR interests. If you want more participation in your hobby then search for photography clubs to join.

But, just because people in your life aren't as interested in your photos as you want them to be doesn't make them bad people.

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Al D said:

I don't have this problem. Some people do care about my photography.

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