January 19, 2009

Tod Seelie does bikes and sex, but not at the same time.

Tod Seelie's advice on pursuing a career in photography is a guide to living doing just about any art right. You are poor, respected and (assuming the most modest of needs) you get to have the time of your life every day you live.


"Um, don’t expect to make any decent money in band photography. Do it for the love of it, and hope you can find another way to make ends meet. I will mention one thing that I get asked a lot, which is how am I able to tour with bands and focus on photography without having a day job. The answer is to keep your expenses down. Re-examine what you really need. Don’t buy new things, be resourceful, eat cheap, dumpster dive, don’t spend money at bars, don’t own a car;ride a bike instead, and when you travel either give up or sublet your room. That last one is probably my biggest one. If you don’t need a lot of money to get by you don’t need to spend a lot of time trying to earn it. Your time is all you have, and having the freedom to spend it how you please is worth a lot more in my book." -Tod Seelie
This feels similar to the Pornographer's Playbook to Touring without Bankruptcy. These are lessons that are easy to understand but hard to live by.

Tod also talks about selling work and expectations regarding sharing of images. With any luck we will be able to find out more about his feelings on image privacy and ownership of media.

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