Recently I posted about the reasons, in my opinion, to print your work. As I was stumbling around the internet as I sometimes do I was startled by two things. First, over at the Phoblographer, I was rather stunned in reading a post regarding prints that, if you hang your own prints, It can be consider “elitist”. Well then? That’s interesting. 

Over on YouTube, one of my favorite photo channels is James Popsys. I recently came across an older posting of his on pricing prints for sale. In the video he hangs one of his own prints and sort of keeps looking over his shoulder as if it is watching him. The comments section has considerable conversation on how it’s wrong to hang your own work and, at the least it’s hard to live with because you keep seeing the so-called imperfections in the print or the image. I guess this is a coded way of saying that you think your photography is foolish. 

So, maybe I shouldn’t be exhibiting my own work? Nah … It’s in my home and I rather like it or I wouldn’t have hung it in the first place. By the way, my wife is a photographer too and some of her work is hanging as well. It’s sort of a friendly competition thing.

I suppose perhaps as a conciliatory gesture, I should hang other photographers work? I’ll have to look into that.

On another note, I don’t have a single photo book of my work, I have plenty of other people’s work in books, just not my own. It would seem to me to be more “elitist” to have a copy of your photo book than to hang one of your prints in the living room – as an example.

Perhaps, in the future I can refer to my prints as “Artists Proofs” and that will explain them better than … I just like them. Really, most of my prints live in archival boxes for preservation, which I suppose is the most elitist behavior of all – preserving them for posterity. Ted Forbes (a pretty respected YouTuber/Photographer) made a video a few years ago titled No One Cares About Your Photography. Maybe that’s true.

Even if it is true. There are people out there who will remember me for my photography. You don’t know them and I don’t expect you to. But perhaps one day one of them will look at a print of mine and say to the other “remember this one? Nana and PopPop had that on the wall in their living room”. I don’t think that is elitist at all, and it’s good enough for me.

let me know in the comments what you think.

Superfluous image of mine.

Stay safe, see the world your own way.

Thanks for reading.