Doing business as an artist, or, my girlfriend is an alien!!

Jen's an Alien!!!, originally uploaded by M.Prophet Photography.

If you know me personally, you know that I have an amazing partner in life and in my business. Jen is my equal in artistic vision and creation and together we're constantly challenging each other to do better, stay away from formula based routines within our craft, and ultimately create works of art that are, first and foremost, impressive and exciting to ourselves.

When you decide to turn a passion (or an artistic hobby) into a career, you put a lot at stake. I'm sure much has been written about this but the basic gist of it is as follows: You create art for yourself, because you love it. At some point you discover that others enjoy your work and fast forward 5 or 6 years, you may find yourself getting paid to create your artwork. In any industry, be it music, literature or art there is a certain pull toward creating work that is "sellable" within established markets, or you have to push to create a new market. The latter is an incredible achievement and something we see a lot of in the current field of technology. I find that it's all to easy to get caught up in a spiral, where there's a tipping point and instead of the main goal being the creation the art, the goal becomes the sale of product. Now, don't get me wrong, with any product based business, sales are important and the products you sell are one of the most important parts of the business. But with a business that is routed in the creation of art, that original concept can easily become diluted, leading to one of the greatest dangers to a working artist.

Since I first decided to pursue a career in photography, I have had a thought resting in the back of my mind, that I wanted to remain true to myself as an artist. What this meant to me was that I was aware of how easily I could have followed a direction that would end up feeling like a daily routine, where each client was the same as the last and I could end up photographing them that way as well. So as I tried my hand at different types of photography, I kept this in mind and eventually found certain types of portraiture balanced out perfectly with what I wanted for myself. Having the ability to try different things, in application, has been a wonderful experience that has brought me a far greater understanding of this topic.

As Jen and I have actively developed a business, and a plan for that business, we have made sure to keep the art in mind. We both come from different backgrounds. As of January, 2011, she is a few months short of obtaining a BFA degree in Photography. I am self taught over the past 6 or 7 years. Both of us see each other as an equal, even while having totally different backgrounds. What is great is that we both have a completely different perspective and knowledge to bring into our artwork, our business and our lives.

What is most important, and the reason for this particular post, is that we both have a profound respect for what it means to be an artist, while engaging in the commercial application of photography. It's almost become beaten into our heads that we are truly lucky to be able to call this our job.

Looking toward what is to come, I am excited that our business plan includes the idea that what is most important to us is the artwork and how we create it, as well as the products that we create. This being said, we are constantly playing with different ideas, things we can aim to introduce, ways of photographing clients and staying creative and on top of our artwork. This last bit is the kicker. Staying creative by trying new things.. Experimenting with techniques (new and old) and pursuing the ones that produce work that satisfies our artistic souls..

With that being said, I took a photograph yesterday that simply illustrates what it's like to actively push ourselves. Jen and I have been discussing ways to incorporate older photographic techniques into Breathless Boudoir for some time. She is currently working on a massive salt print fine art project. At the start of this post is a photograph of Jen operating a large format camera. When she saw the photo, she thought she looked like an alien, I too can see a bit of an ET resemblance. At present, we don't have the financial resources to own one ourselves, but we do have some vintage medium format cameras, and will be looking in to options for large format as well. This is all part of a path of discovery and creativity. To find ways to create our artwork, in a fashion that is engaging and exciting. This is not to say that what we do now is not, it's to say, we are simply finding more and more ways to bring exciting artwork to the business that satisfies and impresses us and our clients as well! To do so makes our business one of the most exciting and fulfilling adventures we could have ever imagined.

We really can't wait to start unveiling some of the stuff we've been working on recently. There will be a few massive posts in the near future. New studio, beautiful books that are coming in, breath taking wall prints that we're slowly putting together.. I can't wait until the post that illustrates all of this!! 2011 is gearing up to be amazing!

In the meantime, on we go... a few clicks of the shutter at a time..