The other day, my photo class went on a journey across campus to see a photographer I had never heard of before, someone that I figured I didn't give half a shit about, and for reasons that, like many things that happen in school, I would probably never get a decent answer to. Once crammed into the crowded lecture hall, and after we all took our seats, a short introduction was given by our program chair and a younger-looking man stood up to the podium. This was an interesting moment, as the man who introduced himself as Kareem Black, the guy we had all gathered to see and hear speak, said he had nothing planned to say, and that he only had one thing to ask of us. He asked for a picture so that he could give it to his mother back home.
I was very interested in the kinds of things Kareem was saying after his initial walk to the mic. To be honest and not to sound cliche or anything, the comment about Kareem's mother made me miss my own mother, so I was ready to listen to anything he told me. As I was writing down some of the normal things he was saying; you know, the kind of things every photographer, every professor, and every art-douche out there says, "Connections connections connections." I noticed something real about the man talking to us. In a story he told about a shoot he was doing of Spike Lee, he said "Spike Lee was a dick. I thought I could charm him---- but it didn't work."He wasn't acting, he was not at all trying to inspire us to study harder, and he was not afraid to throw out a "Shit." Or a "Fuck I forgot what I was talking about." The man was speaking from real experience, from his heart.
Kareem has shot an obscene amount of advertising campaigns, and he has worked with a lot of the biggest names in the industry. He started in 1999 when there was a .com boom and more money than you could ever need, especially for photographers, and he has had an extreme amount of experience with people on every side of the industry. So when he started talking about standing out and being on top, I listened very closely. He went to say that one of the defining moments in his career was when a company wanted him to shoot for their magazine, and when they asked if he knew any other photographers (of which he knew many) he said no and took all of the business. Kareem's personal experience shows that it truly is a cut-throat world in the field of photography, and you cannot always be Mr. Nice Guy.
"Everything is the photographers fault. If the makeup artist fucks up, it's the photographer's fault. If the model tears everyone a new asshole, it's the photographer's fault. If you don't get a good image, it's the photographer's fault; and, that's the way life goes." This statement Kareem said made me realize finally, well, exactly what he said. The kind of life I want to pursue, the career that I am trying to attain, and the kind of life that I am reaching toward is based on my ability to work well with people, to have a professional stance on photography and myself, and it is based on the fact that I can't miss let any opportunity pass me by. Because when I am in the studio, and I have my own crew of makeup artists, wardrobe experts, lighting crews, and I have to take a photograph of Spike Lee, my career could immediately end from just one slip, one miss, one bad comment, or one smug remark. Literally, a photographer could have his career slip away just from letting himself lose focus for just one moment.
Kareem said a lot of things I have heard before, but no one has ever given me as much motivation to be better than he has, because if I want to be anyone, I need to realize that being the best in the business is, as he put it "A combination of luck, skill, and balls.... And you have to leap before you look." Or you probably won't ever make it.
