“The thing I walked away with from this project is that people are people are people,” Stewart Cohen told me today of his “Identity” project. An excellent and accomplished commercial photographer, Cohen has been working on this personal project for ten years, recently reaching a major milestone by publishing “Identity: A Photographic Meditation from the Inside Out” — an elegant, labor-of-love book that includes 50 portraits of famous people who caught Cohen’s interest. Next to each full-frame portrait are words by each subject, in their own handwriting, commenting on their identity.
For “Identity” Cohen made 130 portraits, editing them tightly for the book. Although all his subjects can be labeled “famous,” they do fall into the any one, easily definable category, such as “musicians,” “scientists,” “Nobel Prize winners,” “activists” or “politicians.” Six of Cohen’s subjects point to the breath of his coverage: Bobby McFerrin, Erin Brockovich, Oscar Niemeyer, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking and Jack Kilby. (Jack who? He’s the Nobel prize winner.)
“Whether your a drifter or bad-ass scientist, the human experience is the human experience,” Cohen told me. “There’s no magic. People become what they want to become.”
The idea that even presidents put their pants on one leg at a time is not a new thought. But I found Cohen’s insight refreshing because it came to him as a personal revelation. Cohen is no pollyanna with canned, rosy attitudes. His shifting perspective on the human experience was a slow one. The more he worked on “Identity” — sometimes spending hours chatting and photographing in the homes of people he had admired from a great distance — the more he came to see that “people are people are people.”
The Identity of Successful Photographers
Many struggling photographers, admiring Cohen from afar, might feel envious of his commercial photography career. It’s a good one, with steady, big, satisfying jobs flowing into is studio. Yet Cohen — just as he reports of the large majority of his “Identity” subjects — is incredibly down-to-earth. Cohen never raves about the multiple, big-budget, big-crew jobs — stills and TV commercials — he is currently balancing, nor flaunts his success. He is usually too busy asking, “What’s up with you, Man?”
Although I do want to provide a sense of comfort that photographers are photographers are photographers, I put “Best” in my post title on purpose. In my experience, the better and more successful the photographer, the more down-to-earth they seem when one gets to know them up close, not from the distance of hero worship or professional envy.
Let’s face it, many photographers are real jerks, and very insular, liable to make other photographers feel like crap — especially those who are not as good as they are. But, I think this kind of attitude tends to run amok mostly among the less successful photographers, those struggling with their own careers, those who have enough time and energy to be jealous of those who are “better,” dismissive of those who are “worse.”
I think there must be a difference between the most successful photographers and many less skilled or committed photographers. Like the famous people Cohen encountered for his book — highly successful, very driven in their own, unique ways — the most successful photographers seem to be the most down-to-earth, the least pretentious and the most supportive of other photographers.
“What’s up with you, Man?”, they want to know.
Why I’m Sharing This
It’s natural in the creative world that isolated photographers might feel that some photographers possess truly unique skills or luck or lifestyles or something that makes them different, more successful. When talking today, in relation to photography and any other pursuit of passion, Cohen said that this just isn’t so.
No matter how successful his subjects have been, no matter what notable feats they had achieved, ultimately he sees that they are tied together by the commonality that is thier down-to-earth humanity. This humanity, he suggested, is what makes anything possible for any of us.
This post goes out to photographers who are:
- Working hard at your craft and trying to succeed at your own creative goals, which are defined by you and nobody else.
- Finding yourself mostly interacting with crappy photographers, whom I define as those who, regardless of how stunning their images might be (and who really cares?) seem to make you feel bad about yourself.
- Limited in your exposure to “famous” or “highly successful” photographers.
I’m not about to try to make the (ridiculous) argument that all of the most accomplished photographers are utterly down-to-earth and supportive. However, I am going to suggest that there is a lot of truth to this sentiment.
Just as Cohen had to discover the down-to-earth-ness of his subjects — slowly and over time — so I have come to discover the down-to-earth-ness of the accomplished photographers.
I still get a little nervous calling up photographers I deem to be in a different stratosphere of creative and professional success. But only a very little. Almost invariably all these photographers are incredibly giving to me. They often share stories of the supportive photographers who were key in helping them achieve success.
When it comes to the best photographic pros, it’s a give-and-be-given to world.*
*A Big Ole Caveat
You know, as I write this and I force myself to think of it, I guess I have talked to a number of Jerks with Cameras. The thing is, I’ve learned to get off the line fast or just walk away. Because there are so many supportive photographers, I know that I don’t need to waste my energy with these types. Because I pay less heed to such photographers, I suppose I feel like their are less of these photographers than their might be.
So maybe I’m wrong that the best pros are the biggest givers to fellow photographers, but I think that each one of use can make this a truth in our own creative lives.
Isolation and Misconceptions
I write this knowing that many photographers struggle in isolation, feeling very distant from the “world of great, successful photographers.”
If you are such a photographer, and if you are down-to-earth and eager to help other photographers of any level, than I want to suggest that you are much more a part of the world of great photographers than you might think.
Jerks with Cameras aside, the industry is full of dedicated photographers who struggle to improve their work and who doubt themselves often, but who remain focused to making their creative and professional dreams come true, while not stepping on the toes of others.
Surround Yourself with the Best (for You)
All of this relates directly “advice to live by” that I have heard repeated often by all sorts of successful photographers: Stay away from people who make you feel bad about yourself. Surround yourself with creative people who support your creativity.
Maybe There Is Magic
After Cohen told me that “People become what they want to become” he went on to suggest that hard work and a clear vision trump the importance of luck in how a person’s life plays out. He did not downplay the importance of luck and good fortune, but he made it clear that he had encountered may successful underdogs, as well as many unsuccessful people who seemed to have been dealt a perfect hand of cards.
“There’s no magic,” Cohen repeated later in the conversation. “There are so many roads that people take.” He told me that what he had seen throughout his work with “Identity” is that the people who succeed in the ways they want are those that are active and engaged in the road they take. The specific road is not that important.
Maybe there is no magic in becoming the successful photographer you want to become. But Cohen’s interactions with the scores of successful people he photographed for “Identity” point to a critical idea behind the success of any driven person: There is a liberating power in knowing truly that “people are people are people,” and accepting that — for better or worse — we are ultimately in the same position as anyone else in our opportunities to succeed.
