Simon Griffee
Department of graphic design, art direction, and photography.
October 2011
Be Confident, Baby
That’s no way to live. As with many things, photography is often about self-confidence. The point is not so much to learn what other people like—that’s ultimately a fool’s errand—but to learn what you like. Only by identifying your own concerns and becoming comfortable with your own taste will you stand a chance of developing an organic style, or signature, or way of seeing, that is neither imitative (“designed to be like something else, but usually inferior to the original”) or derivative.
Goodbye, Steve
I never met you, but your work helped make my life and time with computers happier. I will miss you.
You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
…
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
The Polyphoto S.p.A. / Leica AG X1 ‘24 talenti per 36 fotografie’ Scam
So let me get this (Scam) straight:
- You join the competition and advertise Leica on Facebook and Twitter and give Leica AG and Polyphoto S.p.A. full reproduction rights of the images you submit.
- Should you be one of the ‘lucky’ twenty-four chosen as the best, you get to borrow an X1—you need to give it back—and continue to work for Leica and Polyphoto for free by posting three images a week to the competition site and linking to them from Facebook and Twitter, for 12 weeks, after which, in case you missed it, you need to return the camera.
- You also will need to create a one-minute long video of you while working with the X1 for Leica AG and Polyphoto S.p.A., for free.
- All this in return for the chance to be an assistant to a professional photographer (not named), and possibly have your photos exhibited somewhere.
Got all the above from the contest rules and regulations (PDF, Italian).
Fine, many people may see your pictures on their site and you might be ‘discovered’ by the photo world. The least they could do is make it clearer that you are not getting an X1 as a prize, as the whole thing suggests, especially in the Italian press promoting this competition, until you read the small print.
