For those of you who missed the original request/comments I’m adding a new once-a-week feature to the blog.  For lack of a better name I’m just going to call it Open Forum and will be looking for comments from photographers in our industry to help set the pace.  I’m not interested in giving trolls another venue, so I can’t promise that everything sent in will always be published, but there’s so much going on in professional photography right now.

I can’t think of anybody better to kick off Open Forum than Nicole Wolf.  Her first guest post, Don’t Get Stuck in the Middle, got a lot of people thinking about the way they shoot and hopefully a few people were influenced enough to start mixing up their game a little.  I know she got me thinking about the various projects I’m involved with and she gave me a different perspective to consider.

Thank you Nicole for this morning’s first Open Forum!  You’ve given us a great way to kick off the first full week of April!

“So I just got back from another whirlwind 5 days at WPPI in Las Vegas.  I always tell myself every year that I am only going to do three days because I am an old lady and can’t handle the late night debauchery! Actually, I am always so thankful that I stayed longer than I thought, because the fun level is off the charts.  There are so many wonderful people who are beyond excited about the opportunity to meet and become friends with their peers.

I can see how WPPI can be slightly overwhelming at first for anyone new, what with a rumored 17,000 wedding photographers this year!  However, you are bound to make at least 1,000 friends and I bet that is a whole lot more than you came with;)

As I sifted through the catalogue the first night trying to decide what platforms I wanted to attend, I noticed a common theme this year, personal projects.  I found that interesting on the heels of my first Blog post before the convention entitled “Don’t Get Stuck in the Middle.”  I touched on the importance of making yourself stretch past the boundaries of wedding photography and break outside that bubble into an area that is raw, vulnerable and uncomfortable.

So needless to say, this peaked my interest and so I attended a few of these platforms just to see what was being discussed.  I was pleasantly surprised by some and left confused and underwhelmed by others.  I think it is important to address that anyone who is discussing the idea of a “personal project”, finding your voice outside the industry, stretching the possibilities of your own imagination and discovering your “creative” self, needs to be doing the same thing THEMSELVES.  We can not teach others what we do not know or experience ourselves.

I personally feel that the sales pitch needs to be left at home when you are discussing the idea of digging deep within yourself to discover a new way of seeing.  There is something to be said about being authentic when encouraging a hungry, impressionable, searching photographer. Someone that feels stuck in a rut, looking for answers, is trying to find those people within their community of artists and we need to be available to them.  By available, I mean, no ulterior motives when engaging others and giving out your knowledge.

I thoroughly understand the importance of feeding your family and paying the rent, as we all do. However I do not see the necessity, when teaching and encouraging others about growth within themselves, to be selling something they DO NOT need to find that! When we have the ability and platform to encourage, to touch someone in a profound way by our words and our work, we need to be open within ourselves and not be afraid to let others see that. 

One of the most authentic and real platforms that I attended, in which I observed two men, who give of themselves through their work in a way that I have personally not experienced yet, was Matt Mendelsohn and Greg Gibson.  Their work individually is a testament to authenticity, vulnerability and taking yourself to a very uncomfortable place in order to convey the human experience through your work.  No product sales, no workshop pitches, just a look inside of who they are, the realest part of themselves and they shared that with the viewer.

My point being this.  We all have a responsibility when either educating about or participating in a “personal project”, to let ourselves go.  To create a place that others feel comfortable sharing that part of themselves with another human being.  It’s not an easy thing to open up and reveal the most intimate part of who you are, which is what a personal project should be.  I think that the future for wedding photographers is exciting because they are understanding the importance of this and letting themselves move forward in a way that has never been done before.  Instead of talking, let’s be doing, and discover that part of ourselves that we are all searching for…our voice.”

Nicole Wolf