Art is Dead
When I started taking photos, I didn’t think that I would start down the artistic path that I am on now. I know how cliché that is to say, but its true. I just wanted to make content for my band, that was it. Turns out, I felt better expressing myself with photos than I did with music, I felt more comfortable and more confident. It became my art and my passion.
Over the last couple years I met more people who felt the same way about photography, both in front of the camera and behind it. When you have a field as popular as photography, you are bound to have a few people with less than decent habits in it too. Unfortunately that’s where the inspiration for this shot comes in.
I saw a post on social media about a photographer and some rather unacceptable interactions he had with some models. I ended up going down a pretty wild rabbit hole and having a multitude of conversations with models I had worked with, who all had a story or two of their own about photographers crossing the line.
Some of the stories truly horrified me, while all of them disappointed me greatly. What made it worse is the fear that these victims feel is so strong, that they feel that they have to stay silent for their own safety. Going to the authorities is out of the question, what has that system done to instill any confidence that it would help? Going public often has no effect as well, because who would believe them? If word gets out that they have talked, they run the risk of reprisals, which can present on a wide array of horrible consequences.
These pieces of shit, that use my art as a vessel for their disgusting acts, are holding the mouths of every woman who has been victimized. If we don’t do what we can to stop that… Art is dead.