stoihode

Another day, another dollar as they say.
Another nine to five day. I'm having some really artsy fartsy days where my mind races at a million miles an hour with ideas and inspiration for new projects. So that's great. I guess my plan is working.

"What plan!?" you might ask.

Well I've been doing this "Photographer" thing for a little over a year now, and it's been a crazy ride. There's been backstabbing, leeches, assholes, prom queens, snitches and bloated egos.

You see where I come from there aren't all that many photographers, even less of the artistic kind. Down here photography is synonymous with wedding photography and events such as parties and marathons or something. Photoshoots rarely happen, and when they do happen, they are super cheesy and not so creative.

So once my website went online, and the buzz started spreading over this little rock and trickling out onto the other islands in the sunny Caribe, you immediately had business owners, wannabe models, and money hungry "photographers" all ready to cash in and utilize yours truly like a monkey wrench.

So when my website when on it was all with personal work, which wasn't all that much to be honest with you, little voyeuristic views at life around me, some wildlife, and well my "vague" attempt at telling a tiny story through pictures, which much like on here, is called "sets" on my website.

The islanders here, are not really familiar with this concept so i thought i would put something really simple up, and see how they react. Suffice it to say they were crazy about it all.

E-mails were coming and calls from everywhere and everyone. I had a warm reception. Before you know it I was on tv on the neighboring island of Aruba, and in magazines, and in the papers.

But working with people, it's hard. They have deadlines, they want more for less, they want to squeeze you and drain you, and castrate your creativity, leaving you nothing but a young man with a piece of equipment in your hand with the knowledge on how to use it, and a suit standing there barking orders at you to get what they want out of you. This, boys and girls, was artistic lynching.

So it got to a point where I couldn't shit one tiny creative spark out of me anymore, I was drained, I was tired, I was saturated. I felt cheap. A whore. A cog in the big machine. My art, my expression, my feral fire, extinguished to puffy white clouds dissipating into thin air.

So I have decided to take along break from commercial work, a long long long break. I think I'll get back to it perhaps early next year or towards the end of this year. I understand that this is a bold move, as one of my competitors might catch up and leave me in the dust in the meantime, and taking away my crumbs.

But it's a risk I'm willing to take. I have to get back on track, I want to fall in love with this artform again, and I want to create.

So right now I'm in the process of tying up loose ends, doing my part in the projects I have already signed on to, and finishing those up. And it's been getting quieter, and voila! The fire burns again! A tiny little fellow but it's better than black smoke.

I will be doing small little shindigs here and there, maybe a small wedding here, a tiny shoot there, I mean hey at least that way I can make a l little money to fund my ideas and projects.

I have an exposition next year which has already been announced that I haven't done anything with so I'll be working on that this year. And a bunch of really really intense sets, telling stories that deal with taboos. Very subversive of me, if I do say so myself. So it should be an interesting time. I'll be selling "Robert Volkerts Photography" t-shirts too, I'll post pics on here soon. I have received them 2 days ago, but I have yet to do my promotional shoot for 'em but you'll see em. I had a batch come out but they were sold out, and this is my second shirt design which I love very very much. So let's see if they'll be a hit. Cross fingers for me, my trip to Europe this summer, and all the ink I'll get there depends on those sales.

Oh well, that has been my rambling for today, that's what's up with me. I'm probably writing this for nothing, as I don't think no one reads my stuff haha, but hey...who ever said venting was a bad thing?

I leave you with a war cry: "Fuck the man, and fuck the suits!!"