Well its been a hell of a long time since my last journal update, and just as long since my last deviations. This has mainly been due to a lack of personal appreciation for my own work. I just haven't produced anything I find worthy of sharing with the broad community. However, I will soon have 8 images in a series which I find very important to me. As my previous journals have stated, I was studying photography in college. I have come to the realization that this is not the path I am ment to take. For reasons which I will explain below. Let it be known that I am forever thankful for the art of photography, for giving me a medium which I could express ideas and emotions that I could not at the time express in any other way. However, I feel that I have grown past this stage in my life and now can express these complex ideas in many mediums, including but not limited to, painting, writing, poetry, external and internal communication. Seeing as the main reason I was involved in photography is now non existent, my focus is obviously altered.

Through the study of photography, and the broader study of art and aesthetics in general, I have realized some very important details involving all aspects of photography. In our reality today, the world of art, in respects to making a living from, lays in a pitiful state of affairs. We are submersed in an anything goes atmosphere; meaning anything can now be called art, from a pile of bricks, to splatters of paint on paper, to a saran wrapped building(yes I've seen this). This in itself is no problem, different people express themselves in a variety of ways of course. The problem lies in the way that one makes money from such expressions. You must mercilessly promote yourself to every person involved in the art world. You must repeatedly tell everyone that your art is profound, and meaningful, and "worth" its value. The deciding factors no longer reside within the artwork itself, but within the ability of the artist to convince his/her listeners. In my latest photography class I was corrected from expressing my own distaste in a certain aspect of a series of my own work I was presenting. I was told to always say how good my work is. Now this presented in me a great moral struggle, I was raised on the premise that honesty is the best policy. And since art, to me, is an attempt to convey things which are beyond words, explaining why I thought they failed this task was an essential element in presenting my work. This was the distinct point at which my views on art changed.

Faced now with a world demanding the ere of arrogance and dishonest self-promotion, I can no longer morally pursue a career in photography. I will not sell my soul, no matter what the excuse.

I would like to say that I will more then likely continue to upload images I find worthy onto deviantart. And I will always love the spirit of DA, because I can upload things for the simple purpose of allowing others to enjoy, or dislike, them, with no alterer motive.

That being said, the next series I will upload depict the self-promotion attitude. I will save the whole explanation for when I upload them, until then, thanks to anyone who took the time to read this!