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15th jan 2004 ‘no credit’ types vs. a hypocrite
Recently I felt the urge to rant, something that had not happened for a while. In the course of this rant it occurred to me to refine exactly what I meant by a rant – it is all too easy to envisage it as a fervent, dogmatic, illogical mass of words; something beloved by the right wing. I definitely cite it as a more logical undertaking than it’s normally given credit for, so I think this might be a rant too. It’s definitely not a moan (OED: 1) a low mournful sound, usually expressive of suffering. 2) a trivial complaint) or a whinge (OED: complain persistently and peevishly): these are boring, sedentary and inarticulate. Similarly they imply injustice, complaint, a feeling of being wronged. As you will later see, I am not experiencing these feelings, although it may seem that way to begin with.
The source of my ire today is those who you do a favour for and they repay you with nothing. You can see why this may appear to be a moan, but in my case I’m actually quite glad about the very types I’m pissed off with. A strange dichotomy of feelings, but the reasoning is true. So, some background. As someone just starting out in the cut-throat world of photography, or perhaps just the cut-throat world full-stop, I have done some work as a favour, or cheap work to gain experience and kudos. Typically my one stipulation for these jobs is that when my pictures are used I must be given due credit and, if used online, a hyperlink to my site should be present somewhere on the site in question (even if this is just on some random ‘about’ page that hardly ever gets looked at). A reasonable request I think, especially as crediting photos is standard practice anyway. But for some this seems difficult. I don’t know why, except that they are either forgetful, not au fait with standard practices, or just not very nice. This is perhaps an important distinction – I don’t want to cause offence to people who fall into the first two categories, but those who fall into the third are mean bastards. So I won’t mention too many names, although I suspect that the main culprits will never ever see this piece anyway. As for my strange thankfulness at this practice, it stems from my shame at having done the jobs in the first place. For someone who hates pretty much everything about our consumer driven capitalist society I surprised myself at how easily I rolled over and let my tummy be tickled by some cash when given the chance. The bad experiences that resulted have strengthened my resolve not to do this again; not having a link from the offending sites gives me some hope that others may not notice my folly (except for those of you reading this… hmmm).
Doing stuff as a favour for your friends is one thing, and normally quite a good thing as you know and like them and want to help them out. The stuff I’ve done with the exiles, for example, has always been great fun and pressure free. Doing stuff for an acquaintance, or a friend of a friend, is not quite so certain. When I was at university I did some stuff with Enter, an enterprise set-up to create and run projects by and for students. I got to be quite good friends with some of the founders. When we all left uni the reins were handed on, and as I remained in Nottingham I offered to do some photography for the new people if they needed some. Step up Frisky/Topdog. A bad idea from inception, running club nights was never really the kind of thing Enter was all about. While Enter is meant to be about ideas and entrepreneurship it is also, at heart, an altruistic enterprise that is supposed to come up with projects which provide a solution for students. Previous projects, for example, included a website for selling old textbooks and a website for graduates to keep in touch. Another club night is neither revolutionary (or original at all), nor altruistic in any way – unless it were to give out free drinks, but that’s not very entrepreneurial. After a while I worked out the reasons behind this project. The new ‘head’ of Enter was trying to set-up a company running club nights, presumably he decided a club night project would be a risk-free way to get some experience in his chosen field. If I were feeling cynical I might say this was somewhat of a selfish undertaking. But, against my better judgement, I agreed to take some pictures. I thought it might at least be fun. The first one was OK, a decent venue and a reasonable number of people turned up. After that it was tits up, the nights were a complete flop. Whether this was due to poor organisation, lack of advertising or a dearth of people wanting another club night, I couldn’t say. All I know is I took some pictures, and some of them are quite good. It’s not often you feel the ability to take pictures with impunity in a club, so at least I got some stuff for the archives. I passed these on and never heard anything more about it until the other week when, on a whim, I decided to check out how topdog was doing. And lo and behold there is one of my pictures. No credits, no links. But I’m glad, because the picture has been made into a horrible tiled background and the site itself is hideous, reminiscent of the kind of homepages people came up with in the mid-nineties when few knew what they were doing. Yellow text, full graphic backgrounds, gaudy menu bars... urgh! N.B. I would recommend you check it out and have a laugh, but unfortunately the site at www.topdoguk.com does not seem to be working. Related sites run as part of the same enterprise have unfortunately since changed and are – aesthetically at least – more pleasing. Sadly I didn’t take a copy of any of the sites the first time I first saw them, and even google’s cache only has newer versions. Current versions of these sites are at www.kreation.co.uk and www.friskynottingham.co.uk. How disappointing! More links at the end of the article.
- Update March
2005 Provisos aside,
let my tirade of self-abuse continue… Next up is a commission that I did over summer 2003. The first problem was that I agreed to do it. Despite my consistent anti-everything stance as soon as I was offered some money I took it. What a bastard. Of course there were plenty of ways to legitimise this to myself: I had just spent all my money on preparing dreamscapes, so this bit of pain would help towards that; the company commissioning me had an altruistic nature; I needed the experience; I am embedded in a capitalist system despite what I may desire… Naturally these reasons are all bunk, they do contain elements of truth, but there’s no point trying to lie to yourself. The bottom line is that I’m a cock. The altruistic elements were what sold it, the company – Teachfirst – promote fast-track teaching (often in inner-city areas) to graduates. But the advertising spin relies on this experience being promoted as a way into business if you don’t enjoy the teaching. Fair enough perhaps, the scheme does claim to create teachers from those who would otherwise not consider it, but this must be balanced against all those who follow the scheme from a cynical ticking-boxes-on-their-CV view. And the list of sponsors is made up of luminaries such as Accenture and KPMG. In short, this is a company set-up by the type of people I’ve been ranting about above. Altruism is just a marketing angle on what is essentially a corporate idea with the spin that some might stay as teachers. I wonder how good for education are those who only teach for the 2 years it takes to complete the scheme – will they make a real effort with their classes? Anyway, I digress. My beef is not with them, I have no real idea what they’re like except what I have seen on their website combined with my cynicism of all that is corporate. Mostly I’m just pissed off with myself for taking the job. The shoot itself was pretty horrible. There had been some planning in collaboration with a guy from the web design agency, but on the day there was little time to scout the location. Unfortunately the guy from Teachfirst had totally different ideas about what they wanted (why hire an agency then?). The shots involving objects went fine, but then I had to direct people. Very bad. I hate people, I don’t want to tell them what to do, I don’t know how to tell them what to do, or even exactly what I want them to do. The guy from Teachfirst did know how to tell people what to do, but unfortunately not in a way that was helpful for me – particularly as he was trying to tell me what to do as well. We started off in a lecture room doing some group and individual shots. Already behind schedule - thanks to people turning up late – the pressure was beginning to mount. I realised that I was supposed to be in charge, so started making an effort to appear that way. A pretty poor effort, soon made poorer by the overbearing Teachfirst fellow. That was the point I began to wonder whether I’d take a single decent picture. Relatively soon I got to lead a group out onto campus (we were shooting at Imperial College in London), only to find that half of my hastily chosen locations were off limits thanks to the police state mentality that seemed to be in force at the university. We weren’t allowed to shoot in some buildings and got harassed by lecturers and security in others. Public atria and stairwells began to appear quite the opposite; even people in departmental coffee bars were suspicious of us. As it happens I did apply to Imperial back in the day, I am now very glad I didn’t go there if this experience reflects how students at Imperial are treated. Blame September 11th, blame international terrorism if you will, but is this university really so conceited that it believes itself to be a target? Anyway, as usual I digress. Words of the day were: disorganised (primarily me, but not just me), shambolic, tortured, long yet often rushed, unprofessional, stressed, un-fun. And yes, it was my fault. What was I thinking? I hate the idea of a professional photographer who takes photos at his masters bidding, why did I expect this to be any different? Why did I think I could appear to be this professional person for a day? I am not professional in this sense, I am just me and continually trying to be me; not some archetypal photographer for hire. It was all down to the twisting, ephemeral creature of self-justification. I had some ideas that would work, I’d get some experience, I’d get some interesting stuff for the archives, blah, blah blah. Cock! That’s the only word I should have been hearing. It’s not you, and no matter how freeform or artistic you hope it might be, you know that it really won’t be. There’s not enough hours in the day to work in that way. But finally it was over. A little post-production work at home and the pictures were off to the web design people. Surprisingly some of them were actually alright, not great but good enough compared to what was on the website when I first saw it. And my rates had been low, so what did they expect? Clearly I wasn’t an old master at this lark. I took a deep breath and decided not to think about it for a while, lest I was forced into ritual suicide for such a folly. After a while it re-entered my consciousness. I decided to check out the site, see how it looked, if they’d actually used my pictures. And there they were, on the site in jpegs that are far larger than they need to be (for example www.teachfirst.org.uk/tools - why is this picture 150kb? More links below). So it was true – they were definitely a proper corporate outfit, they had no concept of bandwidth, only flashiness. I hung my head in shame. But wait, I though, there is no mention of me whatsoever. No credit near the pictures, no mention on any of the pages. Hooray, no more corporations would be seeking me out thanks to a link on the site. Home free! And then, of course, the indignation. Why no mention? How unprofessional, how low down and dirty. So the dilemma remains – to email them or not?
So there it is, proof if need be that I am a cock. Only such poor decisions as those above would mean I am actually glad that my pictures have been, effectively, half-inched, appropriated by corporate thugs. But I am glad; the decisions were that poor. Curse this world for making me think that way, that nagging thought that insists worth and legitimacy lie down the path of who you work for, what you sell, what you earn. The same world that makes these people take credit for something that isn’t theirs. Enter, the organisation which started it all - www.enternottingham.com Topdog and associates www.topdoguk.com (not working at the time of writing); www.kreation.co.uk (redesigned); www.friskynottingham.co.uk (now no more than a title page); www.diffuseuk.com/design/portfolio.php?site=topdog (topdog designers); www.littlegraycells.co.uk (graphic design for frisky). Teachfirst stuff www.teachfirst.org.uk; my pictures appear on the following pages within the site: what is teachfirst www.teachfirst.org.uk/what_is_teachfirst and subpages; why teachfirst overview page (not splash screen) www.teachfirst.org.uk/why_teachfirst/overview; how to apply www.teachfirst.org.uk/how_to_apply; events www.teachfirst.org.uk/events; tools www.teachfirst.org.uk/tools. Please be aware that some of these images may take a while to download on a dial-up connection. I should add that any other terrible pictures on the site (particularly those with gratuitous text – ‘the world at your feet’, ‘question everything’) have absolutely nothing to do with me.
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