During today’s lecture, we looked at the concept of failure, what it may look like, what we can learn from it and perhaps how it does us good. One of the quotes that spoke to the most during this lecture was from Jack Conte who said: “Failure is success in progress”. I think something is only a failure if you give up on something if it does not work. I don’t think that this applies to artists as you are constantly developing and progressing your practice. On top of this, In life, you are constantly on a journey of discovery and I do not believe that anything is a failure, merely a life lesson of which you can build up from.
The dictionary definition of “failure” is lack of success. The question is, where does this concept come from? Success is measured from a young age. Throughout the education system, you are constantly taking tests to measure your academic success and failures. Throughout school, you are told that if you fail in education you are pretty much going to fail in life. I am sure that most educational establishments would dismiss this...but it happens… so this concept puts pressure on people at a young age to feel like they have to succeed in the system, as if they don’t, then they are failing in life. After leaving the education system, it is then societies social norms and values which may start to measure your success. Have you brought a house by the time you are 23, married with kids with a Mercedes by 28 with a well-paying job? All things that society makes you think you should have while contributing to the economic system. These are things which people may look to achieve in their lives, because if they don’t have these things then they have failed. I do not personally think that this is correct. I have no desire to live in a house, drive a nice car and have a well-paying job that contributes to the superficial system that most people live in.
I do not think that failing in the world of art is possible. You may not be as successful as artists that are making more money from it than you, however, I do not think that this matters. Art has a higher level of meaning, a level of self-expression and plays a part in anyone journey to happiness. This is something that is impossible to compare as everyone has an individual approach to art and what it means to them. Allowing no one to fail within art, but only discover and express.
How I have failed?!?
I am not sure how to research a photographer who has failed as there is most probably no information out there about them as they have slipped through the cracks. When you look at any photographers work retrospectively, you can see how they have continually developed their practice over their lifetime. Gregory Crewdson being a good example as cinematic work has developed, change and responded to life events that have affected his self-expression.
So for the moment, I am going to reflect on the journey that I have been on to get to where I am with my photographic practice. After completing my A levels I was completely lost. I thought that I was going to come out of education and go straight into building up my own freelance photography business that would take some time but leave me debt-free. I tried this and was not very successful. I did not have the knowledge to market myself or the skills to push my work out there. I also thought that all I wanted to use photography for was to make money, and when I started doing that I realised how very wrong I was. It made me realise that I took photos because I enjoyed documenting the journeys and adventures that I took. I realised that my practice was not a commercial style and that I used it to deepen my connection with the natural world. This was when I decided to embark on my next journey which was coming to uni. Being here has given me the time and space to begin exploring my practice on a deeper level and I am beginning to find my feet as a photographer. All of the above may have felt like failures at the time, like when I was unable to get the amount of photographic work that I thought I wanted. However, upon reflection, it has made me realise that all of the things that have happened to me have supported my practice and directed it to where it is now. I have not failed, I have just learnt and directed myself on the path that I have always meant to have been on.
A recent moment of Failure
I reflect on some client work that I completed over the summer and how I do not think it went very well. My personal art practice within photography is a continuous journey of development where I have room for error. However, when you are completing commercial work you do not have that same room for error and you need to be striving for the best shots every time you press the shutter button. A few months ago I was asked to photograph this cabin above. The first shot is from the first shoot that the client asked me to complete. They wanted the images to be shot on a sunny blue sky day which I wasn’t too sure about but went along with it as it was their desire. When I was taking the shots I was not thinking about the images that I was taken enough. I hadn’t picked up the camera in a commercial hand for a while so perhaps was not in the right mindset when I was taken the images. After completing the images I did not take enough time to edit them, this led to a few email exchanges and a couple of re-edits which made me feel as if I had failed. I was also not that pleased with the outcome of the photographs as many of them were washed out because of the bleached sunlight. Luckily I was able to redeem myself when they asked me to do an evening shoot of the cabin. I knew what angles I was going to shoot and the light allowed me to bring out more of the details in the cabin in post. I felt happy with the final images and the feedback from my client was positive. I learnt quite a bit from this and going into the future I will plan and execute my shoots with deeper thought and precision.