There are other means as well, those photoblogs: What of those images that we create that can be so beautiful. Here too the artist ought be paid: Flickr is a great site and allows us to showcase the best of our photography and for me anyway, has been and remains an excellent source of being able to document my life in such a way that is both interesting, has won some small awards (always nice) and has received the accolades that I have wanted.
Yes, there is a downside or has been at times. Flickr, sadly, has become a place for trolls and lurkers who hang about waiting to pounce, particularly on women, who show any skin at all (even tastefully, appropriately or perhaps those in particular because what is hidden remains a lot more interesting than that which is offered up freely.).
There has always been something more interesting about the girl or guy who holds back and doesn’t give it all at once, or give it at all. Someone like the photographer Ralph Gibson who could and still does create the most erotic and sensual images that remain regardless, not sexual or pornographic in the least.
At Flickr, while there may be a lot of junk, there is also a great deal of real talent and I think Flickr is an excellent place for talented people to find each other and work and collaborate, be they artists and artists or artists and models and so on.
Flickr, in the final account, may be one of the few places that will enable those of us willing to offer up our goods for free on the Web in the hope that something good or better will come of it not only from the exposure, but from the introductions we make and the people we meet. Yes, there are far too many creeps and trolls, whom, I will say to their great credit, Flickr dispenses with immediately, all you have to do is report them through their easy email system.
Should anyone leave an inappropriate comment on what I would and likely, you, would consider a rather innocuous albeit sensual photograph of a woman’s leg or shins, or slope of breast (covered), Flickr will see to it that the person is banned right away.
More, they have set up precautionary measures for users so that, for instance, you can make it so that no-one can zoom in on your photographs and save them to their hard-drive so they cannot right-click and “save as.” You can also block certain people from commenting, make specific photographs private if you feel at all concerned and select who can see those photographs by making select contacts “family” or “friends.” When you do this, the image appears only white to everyone else, but shows up for those in your select contacts.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
I addressed this, partly and not quite so extensively several months back.
Basically there are a lot more consumers than creators.
There are even fewer .....
Well, I was going to say there are even fewer quality creators but I guess the market would ultimately judge that. Sort of. Kind of.
There's a lot of people who think they have something interesting to say, and fewer who do.
Still, in the meantime, the good is drowned by the junk. Still further in the meantime, the need for paid content is logarithmically diminished. And the freelance compensation goes down.
There are reasons - often to do with livelihood - why the idea of prestige is one best kept around. The quality of work demanded in print is also a factor.
[typos fixed - to terrible even for me to swallow]
2 - Eric Olsen
HI Sadi, very nice, persuasive post and I appreciate the special dispensation and spectacularly kind words for us!!
Yes, this is certainly an issue of concern and even alarm for real writers.
I was just talking to Natalie Davis about this yesterday, who is an excellent, experienced writer and editor who is having a very difficult time making a living in the new writers' economy, largely created by the Internet.
Temple is correct about the devaluation and it's hard to say exactly how the problem will be rectified beyond the boring, underpaying advertising-and-affiliate model. Something is missing - there is some way to make all of this work that no one has come up with yet.
3 - sadi
i think this will ultimately pay out by allowing writers several things instead of instant compensation:
1. write good stuff and think toward compiling those articles for a book project or an antholgy that is taking submissions.
2. use these writings as tear sheets when applying for new jobs or a promotion etc, as this kind of exposure and number of web hits lends you a legitimacy and authority that you may not otherwise have.
3. develop an expertise, as i sort of fell into, and b ecome THE authority on that subject on the Web and then start to try to get radio bookings or make it clear to television programs, new media and paying outlets that you are available to write about this issue for them,
&
4. if you do become an expert and a primary reference (your site, for example, gets thousands of hits per day), then you have a legitmacy right there that will help you get a real literary agent.
so there is compensation at the end, i believe. you just have to think about how you are going to apply the work that you are doing now in the future.
and too, not all of this work IS for free. Some is paid, but for the work that is free, remember that in the final account, you can make it pay off...
just my opinion and thanks to RJ for a real interesting conversation about this topic as well... it helped me to think about my own views on the topic and get going on this piece as i said i would and ~ ta dah! ~ did.
Eric, of course ~~` not special dispensation, per se, just a logical statement to me that follows from what you do and our many discussions about that as well... speaking of...... ring me sometime...
cheers all, and thanks for reading my absurdly long works.
sade