Thursday 29 January 2009

Break all rules, except the Chairman's

This isn't a post about how to lead your life, neither one that will inspire you. If you're looking for this wrong blog mate. I just finished seeing Lords of Dogtown. Again. Somehow i figured out something. But i'm not gonna tell you. because it amuses me to bits to imagine your confused faces as to what this post is about. It's about nothing. It's about being average. It's about all the bits and pieces that make you, my dear minions, mediocre.

We're an art uni. You see fucked up people 24/7. Gay, punk, emo's, suicidals (they're the fun kind to pick on), housers, finnish people (they are a breed apart - like the martians, but less flying). You get used to it all, all the shit, and the fake nails on guys and the goofy outfits and the superiority and start to see behind it all. Behind the cool glasses and the short skirts - which do provide a good deal of fuel for imagination, i shit you not - you can see mediocrity. Lurking around corners. Hiding in your purse and pissing on your chips when you ain't looking.

There are people, in our uni and out of it, that don't have ONE - SINGLE - CLUE about what they are doing. And why. They're given chances that other people don't even dream of, and they fail miserably retaining their own shallow happiness, bathing in mediocrity. Half of the people i see every day have been given chances that are not even close to their merit. Somehow settling for less, living as a piece of meat with eyes seems to be a satisfying status. How distasteful.

And here to prove that there's two sides to the coin, there are the finnish people in our course. I don't particularly like anyone just because i can't be asked to care about what you think. But finnish people i appreciate. They know why they came here and they always, without exception, live up to the standards. There is a number of small non - finnish people who i consider not brainless, but naming one or two would be more than i can for one day. Settle for the fact that out of all the students at photo there's a ... 6% chance it might be you. But there's a 94% that it might not, which, if i know my maths right - is bigger.

Me? I'm a prick. But i'm one of those who probably shoots better than you. One of them who, after finishing uni, won't be shooting weddings because they pay good money.

And you know what separates the mediocre from the elite? Desire. Excess. Balance. The Rush. Proper parties. Remember the Capa soldier? The elite wants the minutes of fame. The ones that getting a shot like that gives you. Leibowitz's Lennon. Erwitt's Guevara. The Holy Grail of photography. Walking around with a Leica and not having a care in the world, knowing that you're among the best. Walking into your exhibition and people congratulating you. Driving by billboards that you shot. This is what the elite wants.

The mediocre? Somebody's got to shoot weddings as well, don't they?

PS: i am the Chairman and these are my rules. Arrogant, isn't it?