Sending out a bad artist statement is like sending out a CV printed on crappy paper, with stains on it. It doesn’t help to make you (or your work) look very good.
But aren’t you a photographer, a visual artist? If you had wanted to become a writer you would have done so, right? Over the past few years, I’ve tried all kinds of approaches to deal with this seemingly clever point, and none of them worked very well. So here’s my latest attempt: get over yourself!
See, here’s the thing: If you can’t even talk or write about your own photography doesn’t that tell me that you literally have no clue what it’s all about? Doesn’t it mean that I could simply take the work and define what it’s about, twist and bend its possible meanings to make it fit my own ideas? Is that what you want people to do with your work – after you spent all the time getting it together? Probably not.