Finding My Voice
San Diego Winter Wonderland
Perform a Google search on the secret to becoming a successful artist and you’ll get a zillion results on the importance of finding your own voice/vision/niche. Whether it’s finding a topic that’s interesting to an artist or something that will set them apart from the crowd, every artist needs to find what makes them tick and standout amongst the crowd. I’m finally finding my voice as an artist, I still have a ways to go but I’m on the right path.
In early 2020 (before the pandemic hit) I made a decision that I wanted to focus on MY art and not worry about gathering likes on Facebook and Instagram. Yes I would like to share my work with as many people as possible but sharing my art with the world and gathering likes are two totally different things. Black and white photography is what truly makes me happy, it’s what makes my heart sing (thanks John Barclay for that gem). For a long time I knew that color images “do better” on social media so I posted color images but I felt like a fraud and was never fully satisfied or happy with my art, to be honest. Since I’ve made the decision to focus solely on black and white photography I’ve been so much happier and my work has reflected this, at least I think anyways. As expected the number of likes for each post has dropped, pretty drastically but I’m ok and at peace with that. Yes, I still want to share my work with my audience but I can’t focus and judge my work based on likes, it is terrible for mental health. There are so many variables beyond my control to allow an algorithm to determine my happiness as an artist. In the time since I’ve made my decision to focus on MY art, I’ve had several artists that I look up comment something to the effect: “what changed, your images have gotten drastically better lately?”. This feedback has meant the world to me and is worth more than any amount of likes on Instagram. This positive feedback from real people really helps confirm that I’m on the correct path and to continue on this path.
This post isn’t to poopoo on social media, it has it’s time and place. I’ve had great conversations and met amazing people because of Instagram and Facebook. I was just developing an unhealthy relationship with Social Media and needed to correct it. For artists or any creative, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of evaluating the worth of our work on the number of likes a post generates. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Millions, literally, of images are posted everyday, some images will just get lost in the shuffle. If you watch any “experts” on YouTube on how to grow your Instagram one of the top items is to post regularly, as in daily at a minimum. I succumbed to the pressure of posting several times per week and began posting work I wasn’t really proud of.
It’s no secret, images with more color, especially reds and oranges do better (gather more likes), it’s been proven. I’ve made great friendships from social media, I’ve been inspired by others images and stories and I’ve even had great conversations on varies social media platforms. I stopped caring, stopped caring what I thought others would think of my images. I need to create images I like not what I think others will like, if I don’t like an image it will be obvious and no one would or should like them. I’m so much happier now that I’m posting MY art and not what I think will do well on Instagram or Facebook and I only post when I feel I have something that is worthy of sharing with my audience.
Virgin River in Zion National Park
Be YOU!
Thanks as always for following along on my journey, I appreciate your support. I hope you enjoy my images as much as I do creating them. Feel free to reach out if you a comment, question or jut want to say hey.
~ Andrew