Comparatively Speaking

I got a grant to make another booklet from my Sense of Place series, and I’m working on designing it and researching quotes to go along with the photos and I came across the following from William Faulkner

Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

I’ve been having this recurring conversation with different people lately about the fecundity of good art/photography/material out there and the seeming futility of trying to get recognized. My hope is that the fact that we are seeing so much good stuff is because there is a lot of opportunity out there as well. But at the end of the day we just have to stop looking at all that stuff and make better work. Better work than we made yesterday. This matters a lot. So when we (and I am definitely putting myself in this category) start bemoaning the fact that we aren’t in XX or ZZ isn’t calling us for that spread or whatever it is, just stop that line of thought. Refocus and ask yourself – how can I make better work today than I did yesterday. Maybe nothing has changed externally, but internally you are having a more productive dialogue – which with any luck and chutzpah will start making things happen for you.