A shot from a few weeks ago with my friend Danny Krug, and his Yashika T4
I have a question. How do you overcome the staggering flakiness of our generation? In a personal capacity, its the height of rudeness in my opinion. People don't show up for plans, or text you at the proposed hour to tell you they're going to be three hours late, or bail the day of, or simply fall off the face of the earth. It sends out the message that they think your time is ok to waste, and that you're not important enough to merit a two second phone call to confirm or cancel plans.
In a professional setting, I have to wonder how much any of these kids really want what they're working (or not working) for. Do they not understand the power of a network or a good reputation? I'm confused. They talk and talk and talk, they want to do shoots, they want to set up fabulous projects on location here and there, and then the time comes and they pretend like they don't know what you're talking about. Or maybe they really don't - they were pretty smashed at the party the night before.
I have one friend working towards an artistic profession who is on the ball - professional, timely, honest about his schedule limitations, and willing to sign a contract. Everyone else - and I mean everyone - is so flakey it makes my skin crawl. setting up a project, even on a small scale, is so fraught with etiquette peril that I almost don't want to bother.
Except that this is my career too and I want to have as much experience under my belt as possible. And while I hope that the best in the biz are as professional as my friend, I know that most artistic types can't answer a phone call or show up to a shoot on time for love nor money. And I need to learn how to deal with that, what the best ways are to navigate through that and still end up with a photo and an experience. I just don't know how to do it.
