Legacy is a big reason I photograph. I hope it's a way for my family to remember me after I'm gone. I also photograph my family to create historical documents of our place and time. Great video & conversation. I am also so thankful for firefighters, police, first responders, and medical professionals. They are heroes!
Great point that we are all interdependent. This is something that is often over looked but everything we do touches not only those around us but people we don't know. We can even touch people years after our death through our work. However, I agree with your photographer friend that we can't shape our legacy. We can put our work out there but after we are gone we no longer have control over what happens (of course the real question is did we ever have control?). There are people out there who were popular at the time of their death but are soon forgotten and there are those who become famous only after their death (Mozart, Van Gough). Vivian Maier is great example of someone who lived her life in anonymity making no attempt to make her photography none to anyone. After her death she has gained notoriety because of other people pushing her work and pushing her legacy where none existed shortly after her death. Like your friend said, do good work and don't worry about it.
I think about this quite a bit, you have an interesting viewpoint. Very, very few care about what I want to share and my appreciation of what I see and try to convey in my photographs. After I am gone, I really do not expect anyone to care enough to keep my work in their life (I have little to no family, btw) so legacy is something I just don't consider. So, I just post my work to FB and Instagram, get some appreciation via Likes, and be content to fill what's left of my life with that and finding new subjects to photograph. Good luck with that fire, California suffers so much from those disasters.
Legacy is a big reason I photograph. I hope it's a way for my family to remember me after I'm gone. I also photograph my family to create historical documents of our place and time. Great video & conversation. I am also so thankful for firefighters, police, first responders, and medical professionals. They are heroes!
Great point that we are all interdependent. This is something that is often over looked but everything we do touches not only those around us but people we don't know. We can even touch people years after our death through our work. However, I agree with your photographer friend that we can't shape our legacy. We can put our work out there but after we are gone we no longer have control over what happens (of course the real question is did we ever have control?). There are people out there who were popular at the time of their death but are soon forgotten and there are those who become famous only after their death (Mozart, Van Gough). Vivian Maier is great example of someone who lived her life in anonymity making no attempt to make her photography none to anyone. After her death she has gained notoriety because of other people pushing her work and pushing her legacy where none existed shortly after her death. Like your friend said, do good work and don't worry about it.
I think about this quite a bit, you have an interesting viewpoint. Very, very few care about what I want to share and my appreciation of what I see and try to convey in my photographs. After I am gone, I really do not expect anyone to care enough to keep my work in their life (I have little to no family, btw) so legacy is something I just don't consider. So, I just post my work to FB and Instagram, get some appreciation via Likes, and be content to fill what's left of my life with that and finding new subjects to photograph. Good luck with that fire, California suffers so much from those disasters.
man what an insightful video!
thanks for sharing this with us
really really enjoyed watching this :D