Counterpoint (and Some Casteneda)

After yesterday's post I got this wonderful response from my friend Kirk Tuck of VSL, which really provides the best sort of counterpoint:

I must be especially dumb. I've been doing this photography thing as a full-time professional since 1988. I worked in advertising and academia before that. I am so dense that I just ignored all the articles and talk about how hard it was to be a photographer and spent the time...being a photographer. While I'm not going to see my work in any museums, and no-one is rushing to make a monograph about my career, I never missed a mortgage payment, never missed a car payment, never missed a month of putting in a percentage of my income for retirement, and never went hungry. I've been to exciting places and seen exciting stuff. I've been offered a glass of wine by one President and photographed two others besides. I watched the birth of high tech from up close. I've watched nearly 500 live theater performances, either for free or while being paid to do so. Some of them were really good. I've had the opportunity to play with the most fun cameras and teach fun classes. I got to write, and get paid for, five books about photography. I've just finished paying for my kid to go out of state to a prestigious private college for four years, and did so without incurring any debt. I've put enough money in the bank to retire, but why would I want to when this is so much more fun?

Maybe everyone else is just doing it wrong...

If I had embarked on what I thought would be my first career, electrical engineering, I have no doubt that I would have not done nearly as well, would not have a flexible schedule that routinely allows for a mid-morning swim, would weigh five hundred pounds and would have consumed tons of bad take-out pizza at the tawdry desk in my shag-carpeted cubicle. And worse.

Not everything is about the money. You only get one go at life and if you aren't doing what you love you are only cheating yourself.

Retirement is only for people who didn't like their careers.

—Kirk Tuck

I also got this the other day from Dave Reichert, which seems especially apropos of Kirk's comments:

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.

This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.

—Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998), from
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

-

Mike
(Thanks to Kirk and Dave)

P.S. The Wikipedia page on Castaneda is very interesting if you've never heard of him. The conundrum of the validity of received or "authentic" vs. invented wisdom is present in many religions and seems to be encapsulated in Castaneda.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Gordon Cahill: "I'm with Kirk. 100% I've been as busy as I wanted to be for much of the last 25 years. Photography as a career has evolved. If you also evolved then you'll be OK. Being a photojournalist is a shrinking pool and Nat Geo don't want to give me a year to photograph sea slugs in Patagonia, but I do OK. By a small margin of skill and a bit of luck I've done my favourite thing as a job for so long I don't think I could do anything else. And I've loved almost every day of it."

Comments

[Eric Brody]

I'd like to respectfully disagree with Kirk Tuck's comment that "Retirement is only for people who didn't like their careers." I worked hard at my primary career, being a pediatrician, caring for children for over thirty years. I loved it; it was a great time for me. I am still in contact with many of my former patients and their parents.

I chose to retire relatively young because I could. Two colleagues, both younger than me and previously healthy, died suddenly and I realized I wanted to do something else for the rest of my functional years. I'd been doing photography since my beloved uncle showed me contact printing when I was a teen. Now, in retirement, photography is my main "occupation."

I do photography related activities almost every day; I'm active with local groups and at our superb local art museum. I plan to do this until I not longer can. I make no money at it; I'd starve if I had to live on my sales but feel like my retirement time is well spent.

Many fortunate people now live longer lives and want to have multiple adventures, not all of which make money but many of which provide great challenge and joy.

[Doug Martin]

Kirk Tuck's comments are very interesting, and good for him for find a career path he finds rewarding in many ways. I hope his comments about engineers are made tonque-in-cheek and "Retirement is only for people who didn't like their careers" should be re-thought.

[I think his comments about engineers are only true FOR HIM if HE had become an engineer. He can comment further if he wants to, but that was my reading. --Mike]

[Mike Newton]

What an excellent pair of texts. In particular, I had not seen that Castaneda piece, and I do thank you for posting it. Pause for thought.

[James Bullard]

I see it like the old saw about country musicians 'making it' in Nashville. Out of a thousand who go there, one will ever make an album and only one of them will make a second album.

Yeah, it is possible to make a good living as a photographer but it takes a lot of personal and business skills in addition to making good photographs that most photographers don't have. No one makes it on 'good photos' alone.

[Michael Ferron]

"Retirement is only for people who didn't like their careers."

Exactly why I semi-retired this past January. Never more true a statement Kirk.

[Jack]

I'm happy for Kirk Tuck, but he's incredibly naive if he believes that just because he did it, anybody can. Especially that because he did it 30 years ago, anybody can do it today.

The demand for professional still photography is rapidly waning. As experienced pros get pushed out of failing markets like retail, they move into the surviving markets, leaving no room for newcomers.

The future is video. If you're still arguing Raw vs. JPEG, you might as well be arguing Rodinal vs D-76.

Oh, and admonishment to "do what you love" for a living is absurd. We can't have everybody traveling the world taking pictures. People need to do what needs doing, not what they love to do. Nobody loves collecting garbage, repairing downed power-lines in a blizzard, or caring for a loved one stricken with Alzheimers. But people do what must be done, which strikes me as more noble than having wine with a President.

[kirk Tuck]

Two points. Yes, my remark about engineers was very much "tongue in cheek." I swim with a bunch of engineers of all stripes and they are great guys who love what they do. And yes, their profession has changed a bunch too.

Second, as to my naiveté... The maxim has always been "you are only as good as your last shoot." That means that no one gives a crap about what I did when I started out thirty years ago but they hire me for what we do NOW. There are projects for photographers out there. If there are jobs for me there are jobs for Joe Smith and Sarah Smith. They are different then the jobs we did 30 years ago. But I meet new photographers all the time. Some will make a career of whatever the new paradigm of photography is. And they will bring their youth along as a selling tool.

The bottom line is that everyone who walks in to a new client for the first time and either wins the job or doesn't largely from the work they show, not from a resumé of past acheivements. 30 years of working won't change that in the market for commercial art.

Young kids have advantages that can trump experience. They get the cultural signals and nuances. Their potential clients are close to their ages. They move more fluidly between video and stills.

Onward:

If you don't at least give "what you love" a shot you've quit before the race begins. Life is long enough to support many different trials and attempts, many career changes. I could have kept at the part time job I had in college and remained a line cook at a restaurant for the rest of my life but I'm glad I tried for something different.

Readers here aren't, for the most part, hampered by lack of education or cultural support. I'll conjecture that nearly every TOP reader has at least a 4 year college degree and had good training. Their choices aren't limited to blue collar jobs and most are smart enough to have figured out how to be a photographer if that's what they want. Most would rather enjoy it as a hobby; a passion.

What most people mean when they trot out that resistance to trying something less secure is that they are willing to trade security for potential success at something fun. Everyone makes a choice about where they want to be along the curve of risk taking and rewards.

Funny about the samples Jack used. One of my clients is a big waste disposal company and I spend time with their garbage truck drivers. They mostly have fun on the job. Another client is a regional power company and their linemen have tremendous pride in what they do and what they know how to do. I'm caring for a parent with Alzheimers right now. I may curtail taking on jobs with too much travel away from home but refuse to give up on my dreams.

Finally, the snarkiness about the "wine with a president." I would agree that just about anything would be more noble than drinking wine with the current president. I stated that I was offered a glass of wine by a president (George W. Bush) but I could not and would not accept it while on the job.....that's how I keep the job... But I loved being in a small group of people who got to share ideas with him for the better part of an hour. Is that noble? No. But is everything you do all day long "noble?" I'm betting Jack is picking and choosing to support his point of view....

[James]

I agree entirely with the comment from 'Jack' concerning jobs.
To me, one of the most memorable parts of Happy Days is when Mr Cunningham is totally despondent with his achievements in life and Fonzie the philosopher says something along the lines of....
"Heyyy, Mr C., you take care of business"
I was lucky enough to travel the world taking pictures and getting paid.
I just happened to be an engineer that (sometimes) carried a camera.

[Øyvind Hansen]

By coincidence listened to Kirk being interviewed by Ibarionex on the Candid Frame just a few days ago. There was little talk about photography and a lot of talk about how to run a successful business. lots of people can take good photos, but you have to smarten up to make it into a living. I came away very impressed by the savviness of Kirk Tuck.

[kirk Tuck]

Thank you Mr. Hansen. Ibarionex is a great interviewer if he can make me sound savvy...

[Joe Lipka]

I've had this discussion with photo friends for years. Many want to be a professional photographer but fail to appreciate what that means.

What it means is that they want to own a small business whose sole product is your photographic skills.

If you don't want to own your own small business, then you probably shouldn't attempt to be a professional photographer.