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The problem with any "art-related" work is that it's not something practical / useful / necessary for anyone. People need programs, but no one needs photos, mos

by phaker 15y ago

The problem with any "art-related" work is that it's not something practical / useful / necessary for anyone. People need programs, but no one needs photos, most often they want one, but could do perfectly without it. (There are some photos that people will really need done, but that's the worst kind of work, and not really profitable, so I assume you that's not what you want to do.) If you are someone who makes stuff people want, but don't really need you'll be hit much worse by budget cuts, recessions etc. because your work is one they can do without easily. I draw (and do some design stuff). I get some money out of this once in a while, but it's not much. I know that I could get more out of it if I tried harder. But that wouldn't mean doing more of what I like doing, I'd have to take work that I enjoy much less than programming. And I'd probably have trouble making ends meet, even if I was successful It'd wouldn't be a very dependable source of income.

cjbprime 15y ago
I think international photojournalism is practical/useful, and sometimes even world-changing if you can get the right shot. Quite the opposite of a computer day job, and probably not the sort of thing you want to try and juggle with having a family..
- phaker 15y ago
  > international photojournalism is practical/useful True, I was looking for a right word, but couldn't find it. What I meant was that people and businesses need programmers. For most flavors of 'programmer' the demand is quite stable, and it isn't going away because "the economy is bad!". If you are e.g. a freelance webdeveloper (at least a reasonably good one) you can be sure that in the next year demand for your work will be comparable to this year's. On the other hand, AFAICT demand for photographs is much more volatile (at least for most kinds of photographs), and I think it's because people find it much easier to do without them than without webpages when they need to cut something. I know it works this way for artwork. I might be wrong, just sayin'.

by phaker 15y ago

cjbprime 15y ago

I think international photojournalism is practical/useful, and sometimes even world-changing if you can get the right shot. Quite the opposite of a computer day job, and probably not the sort of thing you want to try and juggle with having a family..

phaker 15y ago
> international photojournalism is practical/useful True, I was looking for a right word, but couldn't find it. What I meant was that people and businesses need programmers. For most flavors of 'programmer' the demand is quite stable, and it isn't going away because "the economy is bad!". If you are e.g. a freelance webdeveloper (at least a reasonably good one) you can be sure that in the next year demand for your work will be comparable to this year's. On the other hand, AFAICT demand for photographs is much more volatile (at least for most kinds of photographs), and I think it's because people find it much easier to do without them than without webpages when they need to cut something. I know it works this way for artwork. I might be wrong, just sayin'.