Is there life beyond stock photography? And if so, is it worth living?
Stock certainly has a lot of advantages. It pays bills. It is fun to do. It is creative. It earns money even when you do other things. But then: it can also be a bit boring. The type of photography one is expected to deliver to the agencies is pretty well defined, and if you want to sell hotcakes you might narrow down it even further. Not only topic wise but also in terms of creative expression. No experiments. Even “new” trends (whatever there can be really new here) are toned down and adjusted to mainstream seeing habits before being accepted in the agencies and chewed down the chain.
In order not to become too narrow in what I do I decided to focus a then and when a bit on work that is out of scope for the main business. Work that is, in fact, not a business at all. I do not know exactly where this will lead to but am watching with curious excitement myself. I shall report further.