Do photography for yourself.

I think that every photographer must, at some point, reach a mid-photography crisis of sorts. I myself have reached such a crisis point exactly one time before, and I recently reached it again. This mid-photography crisis is characterized by symptoms of not liking your own work, posting a lot on deviant art for the endless praise, and in general taking less photos than ever before.

For me, I think my recent slump can partially be attributed to my brother. I offered to print a couple of my landscapes for him at 20x30" size and hang it in his condo in San Francisco. His reply? He told me "Well, all of your landscapes look the same." You know, I can read all of the crap in the world from someone who I don't know and it won't bother me the way my brother's statement did. All my life I've been trying to live up to my big bro's incredible success, and when I feel that I can finally show evidence of my existence in his life through my work, I get shot down like this.

The question of whether all of my landscapes look the same is one worth asking. However, this is largely a question for myself to decide and not for my audience, who is not behind the camera. My brother has never shown great enthusiasm for my work, and it really does affect me that he feels this way about what I do. I do have a lot of improving to do, but I am young and still trying to comprehend even the technical side of photography.

So here is my advice to you guys. Always have an open ear to other peoples' opinions and advice, but at the end of the day, take the photo for yourself. My brother's criticism was useful to me because it made me step back and look at my body of work as a whole. While I do feel that it may be time to approach landscapes (and portraits too) from a different point of view, I have decided that I will not look upon what I have done so far with disdain. I was going through my hard-copy 13x19" binder of the landscapes that I have done. Crossing, Welcome to Nowhere, February Clouds, etc... and the first thing I thought was "Oh my god, he's right." But what kind of brainwash bullshit is that? Yes, I do have a style, and yes it is perhaps time for a change. But the photos are taken. They are taken, and I have given them to the people that I love - because that is how I show it. What's done is done, and I won't beat myself up for what I have done so far.

Expect to see new things from my work. I don't know what direction I'm going to take, but I'm going to try and work outside my comfort zone in the next year in an attempt to really spice things up! Change is in order, but I am not ashamed of what I have done so far.

This is a photo of my mother that I took during my trip to Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico. She is a woman who takes photos for herself.

- Chui