Tuesdays with Ian:
Maxims for Revolutionary Photographers
a Complimentary liveBooks Webinar

July 7th

5 PM Eastern
4 PM Central
3 PM Mountain
2 PM Pacific

Join us for this One Hour Participatory Event
Register Here:

maxim |ˈmaksim|
noun
a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth or rule of conduct : the maxim that actions speak louder than words. ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting an axiom): from French maxime, from medieval Latin (propositio) maxima ‘largest or most important (proposition).’

pithy |ˈpiθē|
adjective ( pithier , pithiest )
(of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive.

revolutionary
adjective
1 rebellious, rebel, insurgent, rioting, mutinous, renegade, insurrectionary, insurrectionist, seditious, subversive, extremist.
2 a revolutionary kind of wheelchair new, novel, original, unusual, unconventional, unorthodox, newfangled, innovative, modern, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge, futuristic, pioneering.

How to use these Maxims. Take these questions and statements and extrapolate. Let them stir your soup. For example, if you were able to reinvent the concept of beauty, what would it look like? Some of these maxims appeared in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s book: Poetry as Insurgent Art. I have adapted them for photographers and wrote a few of my own.

Ponder!

Creating is not a sedantary occupation. Stand up. Grab your camera, your sketchbook. Let them have it!

What music do people hear when looking at your artwork?

Reinvent the concept of beauty.

Stand up and rap out loud in front of a mirror or video camera.

Give the gift of sight to a blind world. Be an eye for the blind.

The sunshine of your artwork casts long shadows.

Make the invisible visible.

Like a field of sunflowers, artwork should not have to be explained.

Haunt independent bookstores.

Allow yourself dazzling flight — flights of outrageous imagination.

Make art without an attachment to an outcome.

Be a songbird; not a parrot.

If there is nothing to shoot, shoot it.

Make a photograph of common household objects. While you are at it, clean the cabinet under the kitchen sink.

Spend a day making art only in your mind’s eye. Shutterless pictures stored in the work flow of your brain.

What if the greatest magazines are from outer space. What if you were filing photographs to some supreme photo editor who wants to understand Earthlings and has a low tolerance for bullshit.

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Three of my 2008 liveBooks sponsored webinars are now available on-line.

Thanks to liveBooks for making them available at no cost to you.

Each multimedia presentation is an hour l0ng.

A schedule for 2009 will be posted at the liveBooks site.

Webinar One

What if Everything You Learned About the

Marketing of Creative Services is Wrong?

The world of commercial photography, as we have known it, has changed. The industry needs to focus on severing ties with the past and to invent innovative ways to find and proclaim a new vision – institutionally and individually. We all know there is something wrong. We have experienced the devaluation of services provided by commercial photographers. We have tried to fix things with obsolete tools. In order to grow their business in today’s market, photographers must have the courage to let go of many old beliefs. In this series, I identify and dispel ten prevalent myths that prevent change, growth, and thwart creativity. In this session, I expand upon the first myth.

Myth #1

You Must Do One Thing and Do it Well.

Opportunity

You may do many things and do them all well.

Webinar Two

The Photography Industry’s

Sales Promotion Dilemma

In this chapter of Ian Summers’ Webinars, I identify and dispel the email myth and talk about the opportunities and expectations for effective photographers’ sales promotions.

Myth:

If I send out an email marketing blast every few weeks,

I better hire someone to answer the droves of phone calls

asking me to bid on their next campaign.

Opportunities

Of course, email may be

an effective element in

a photographer’s marketing plans.

I believe there are some questions that must be asked before you choose any medium. Before you begin to create a marketing plan, questions like: Who am I? Where am I going? How am I going to get there? But this discussion is about sales promotion.

What Do You Want Your Promotions to Accomplish?

“I just want to keep my name out there.”

Warning: That is not enough!

Learn how to Achieve the
Oh Yeah! Response

Oh yeah! Joan Jones. I know who she is.

I know what she does and how she sees.

Her promotion is pinned up over my desk.

I am hoping to find an application for her work

next time an opportunity arises.

Use the same creative energy you apply to making photographs

to produce imaginative and effective sales promotions.

Webinar Three

Is Photography Your Calling?

Calling and Talent

Vision is a calling. A calling is an inner urge or a strong impulse, a passion, some believe a calling may be divinely inspired. How will the world be a different place as a result of your visit on the planet? What is your calling? What is it that you feel the urge and passion to bring into being no matter what?

Do you have a natural marked innate ability, for artistic accomplishment? That is a definition of talent. Talent and calling must be present to sustain a career as a professional photographer in the first decade of this new century.

Learn How to Set Goals that Don’t End Up in the Back of a Drawer.

Take Back Your Power to Create.

In this Webinar, I will help you articulate your calling

and find ways to stay on your path.

Identify what you want

and set priorities that will help you stay focused.

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