MICHAEL DONOVAN RULEZZZ!!!!!

Thank you :D

I wish NY had LA’s weather!!!

Thanks!!!!

Thanks O’! You rock too!!!!! Did you find out if you’re still going to Paris?!

I don’t think it is bad or good. It is what it is! As long as you feel you’re being good to yourself and your art, you are good!

Ha - I’m not going to out my friend. His work is AMAZING and I’m sure his financial luck will change as he continues to show more effort in to production. He has already started to up his production a small bit so I’m excited to see where it goes in the coming months and years.

I’ve been shooting in NY since about May 2009 - NY is where I started to understand business and artistic integrity. I shot in Chicago for about 1.5 years before that - Chicago is where I started to show interest in the business of photography. But I’ve always had a camera with me since I was young.

Thank you!

I actually disabled Anonymous responses tonight after that last post. I’ve received too many anonymous messages that I simply don’t feel right responding to. For example - I received one the other day that was just a blatant attack on another photographers work. What am I suppose to do with that?! 

Personally, I believe that there IS good intentions from Anonymous. But I also think it has become a weak set of balls for our generation. Sometimes Anonymous is a great thing and necessary, other times it can be a foolish person who wants to yield some temporary power, but other times it is people who DO have good ideas hiding in fear. I believe we would have new leaders if some of the people who stayed anonymous went public. 

Thanks!!!!

Thank you!

I think Helmut Newton was a great artist! I love that he had a personal vision and stuck with it. I love that he kept his shoots simple. And if you watch a few of his documentaries, you’ll see that he had a great balance between earning money and keeping his artistic integrity - that, to me, is one of his best attributes since it can be SO hard as an artist to balance the two. His balance between maintaining self respect as an artist and earning a good living for him and his wife is what I am most inspired by.

I have a friend who is an artist and is all about “artistic integrity.” He always tells me how he couldn’t do work just to make money because that would lose all integrity. But I have to point out to him over and over that he is over 30 and his parents still pay his bills. And the last time we went out I had to cover the tab because his card was declined. How much social integrity does he have at the moment?! And then there are friends who are making money as commercial artists but they never say anything - their work is all fluff; sometimes with entertaining values but sometimes none at all. They’re paid less because they didn’t keep their artistic integrity. Helmut Newton showed that you could do both. AND you could see that in his work. There was a lot of the work for himself and for the viewer. He took the things he loved (women) and shaped them in to scenes he found appealing… and they were appealing to us as well. 

So… yeah… that is what I think of when I think of Helmut.

Thank you!!! I appreciate it!

You’re missing the point. I’m not leaving so much to the model. It’s a collaborative experience.

In most situations models are told EXACTLY what to do. They are never given a voice. The art director, stylist, editor, and photographer are all barking orders at them at shoots (and usually the orders are conflicting!). So this is my chance to work with someone who sees a lot, works with a lot of talented people, and does not usually say much.

For example - Yesterday I had a shoot with 5 models and a celebrity - the models spent 13 hours at a shoot and never had any voice - they were props. And how many shoots are like that for models? MOST. So to take some time and make art with someone I value is not “a pity.”

There is a time and space for me to work all for myself. And then there is a time and a space for me to share the limelight. And then there is a time and a space for me to shut up and do my job. There is a time and space for me to work that excites me and then there is a time and space for me to produce work that I gift to the public. If I took your suggestion and only aimed at pleasing myself: this blog would not even exist and no one would ever see my work.

Go through my blog and you’ll see there are plenty of photos with hundreds or thousands of notes - and look again and you’ll see several with NO notes at all. Clearly I still shoot for myself but it doesn’t hurt to be social  as well. Is this limiting myself and my work? Absolutely not… quite the opposite in fact. 

Thanks so much!!! I just checked out your tumblr and I totally love how everything has a light feeling to it.