I had a very very short twitter conversation with another artist yesterday but it inspired me to write this.

The artist in question mentioned on his twitter feed that he had offered a piece to his mother and she responded with "Where would I hang it".  I commiserated back saying "that's why it is so hard to make a living in the fetish art world. How many people can actually hang erotic art on their walls?"  His response was "I've been doing it for 8 years."  I let it go at that but I really wanted to probe further.  Had he been making a living off of art for 8 years or was he making a living off of photography?  Whichever way it was, was it a good living?

I do draw a distinction between photography and art.  Most of what you have to do to make a living with a camera is photography.  To make a living selling art, you'd have to be selling quite a few significant prints a month on a continuous basis just to survive.  Famous artists can charge more and sell more but that's a very small group of people.  To make a living with photography, you have a broader base of product shots, advertisements, etc.  Even with that expanded scope, most photographers have trouble paying the bills.  

In the end, it comes down to supply and demand.  There are lots and lots of serious camera guys out here that take photos for our passion and are willing to do it with little monetary compensation.  As a result, there is a glut of really good work on the market mixed in with some so-so and really bad stuff.  You have to be a really good photographer *and* good at the sales process of your brand to get the work to keep the doors open.

So, when I say "nobody makes money at this", what I mean is that you have to work your ass off by making contacts and shoot a lot of stuff for other people just to get by unless/until you happen to buid up that personality equity (fame) to increase your revenue stream.  So many famous artists never made money while they were alive.  I'd like to be different but I'm not going to lie to myself and believe it will just happen if I just take more photos and improve my skill set.