Professional Freedom

Guy Tal

Professional photographic artist, author and speaker working primarily in the Western US.

guytal.com

To be truly free one must take on the basic conditions as they are—painful, impermanent, open, imperfect—and then be grateful for impermanence and the freedom it grants us. Gary Snyder

A young photographer wrote to me recently asking if I would consider filming some of my outdoor work and making the videos available publicly. He also inquired about any advice I might have for people aspiring to become professional landscape photographers. As I considered my response, at first it seemed obvious to me that making videos was not something I wanted to do since it would be at odds with my reclusive personality and with the way I photograph. I recognised also that in the minds of many, “landscape photographer” is a profession largely like other professions, with well-established career paths, prescribed milestones, reliable revenue streams, and daily routines. For me, that was never the case. Photography for me has always been, before anything else, something I pursued intending to enrich my life, independent of how I earned a living.

It is by sheer coincidence that photography has become my profession.