There is a universal truth about creatives: At some point in his or her career, he or she will have an ego that far outweighs the depth of their experience and the quality of their work. It may last for decades or it could shrink the minute that person walks out of art school.
via CLREPS.
8 Comments
Ouch, that one is too close to the bone! Heh, heh…
Advise I could have used when I was in my twenties.
I beg to differ. I have met many talented photographers who have very little ego, are extremely creative, but are more inclined to be too humble and not aggressive or competitive enough to compete with others who are of equal talent with bigger egos.
It’s the people, as art buyers, who are swooned by self confidence, and swagger that can perpetually fuel the uber-egos by worshiping ego driven people in order to feed their own egos. Ego credentialling if you will. This is what turns the stomach of most humble creative people and kills their own self worth by witnessing rewarded idol worship based on panache and bravado. I’m not sold that everyone who is a creative has an ego/talent imbalance that naturally will become a recognizable negative attribute at some point.
I’ve always thought that you need an ego to be a photographer. After all, you are selecting some aspect of the world that interests you and presenting it as important, or, at least, as something to consider.
Seems to me that problems arise when the photographer (or anyone for that matter) falls in love with their ego. Once that happens perspective is lost. And perspective, in photography as in life, is pretty important.
Combine Scott and Tony’s comments and you have the balance and truth about egos. I want to throw one thing into the mix; what about a photographer who possesses great self confidence? or is it semantics self confidence versus ego….
The fine line I feel we all walk is the difference between confidence and ego. Photographers need to be a rock of confidence or else everything falls apart. I feel many confuse the two.
@ Steve: I pretend to be, and sometimes am, confident. But what I like the most, what most informs my process, is getting lost, just not knowing, but moving (or is that: bumbling) forward nonetheless. For me, therein lie the discoveries.
There is a fine line between confidence and ego. Not everyone will see that line in the same place.
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