10 Jan 2014

Photography made difficult - the stigma of the 'best of' album


Today's blog features samples from our 2013 'best of' album and an editorial from our Director & first Photographer



Every new year brings a look back on the previous year's work. Our work ethics, our auto-critique and our insatiable need for feed back and evolution takes us to the yearly tradition of the 'best of' album. The sheer amount of photos in our 'best of' albums (100) is a statement to our enormous yearly production and to our thirst for feed back and advancement, for no-one produces 100 significant photographs of artistic value each year, unless you are Henri Cartier Bresson...




Nevertheless, we accumulate hundreds of interesting images from our thousands of captures each year. Hence this once a year publication of what we feel is our best work. From this 'best of' album and the comments we get on its content, we table on the coming year : what we like ; what others liked best ; what we want to do ; where we want to go with our work.


Éric : 'There is a stigma attached to the 'best of' album : it comes across as self promoting to a lot of people'. I find this perception regrettable and I feel it is counter productive. There is always an element of self promotion to featuring your work on personal accounts of social media plate-forms or any other material or info about oneself, your work or whatever else you share on social networks. These networks have self promotion in their DNA. However, the exercise for me goes far deeper. It is a matter of diffusion and promotion of art far more than it is a matter of self promotion. Unknown artists have always been suffering from this ridiculous stigma on many mainstream social networks, facebook comes to mind instantly when I think about this. Artists are creators and they should communicate this ; likewise we as artists should find interest in as many other artists as we possibly can, look at their work, comment and diffuse through our own mass media outlets, twitter in particular. The artist community needs this brotherhood and network of diffusion for the promotion of art in general and the general non artist public should find interest, but mostly respect, at this new availability of underground arts on mainstream social networks. It is an alternative to all the mainstream crap out there... So, for all of you who think promoting ones work through mainstream social media is nothing but self-promoting narcissism, let me correct you ; it is a gift from the heart cause I could very well be spending my precious time doing far more lucrative trades. Not interested?, no problem, just don't stick to us any untrue intentions. Funny how Instagram has become acceptable in that fashion despite all the non-authentic art circulating on that mainstream social network ; I guess the media IS the message after all




Tout droits réservés - all rights reserved : FOTOISO3200/2014

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