Negative Space #008

Artistic Integrity and why it's important

Before jumping right into this late October post, I just wanted to say thank you for helping Negative Space reach its first 100 subscribers! I’m grateful for every single one of you that follows along here. The goal of this monthly publication has never been about gaining subscribers, although it’s very encouraging. The gaol rather is to cultivate a place where I can talk honestly about the ups and downs of my creative process, thoughts on photography and art, and the wins and losses that come with working on my craft. Hopefully along the way these posts resonate with those of you who are reading in a way that provides some kind of insight and encouragement. Now let’s dive into what was supposed to be October’s post.

A Big Topic

Since starting at State Film Lab about three years ago, there’s been a common idea that we keep referring back to as a team. This idea isn’t specific to us as a company, in fact, it’s a pretty common idea among the business world and those who strive to put out some kind of product. It’s the idea that there are three things things you can strive for when delivering a product or service: speed, quality, and cost. Of course we want things to be done quickly at the best quality possible and an affordable cost. But in most cases, hitting all three of these areas every time or sometimes at all can be difficult, or to some nearly impossible. Most of the time only two of these goals can be achieved.

I didn’t go to business school or have any prior course study of this idea but I know enough about the general concept and how hard this can be when trying to achieve these things at the lab. But naturally, this idea can seep into each of our worlds in how we go about creating things without us even knowing it sometimes. And sometimes we have to choose one to leave out or spend time focusing on one more than the other. Knowing our patterns in how we work and seeing which of these we tend to the most can help inform our artistic integrity.

Before moving forward, I think it’s safe to say that the topic of artistic integrity is a big topic that take many different paths without being exhausted. This post is just a tiny sliver on how I’ve come to incorporate it in my practice as I’m sure many of you have incorporated it differently in yours.

What is Artistic Integrity?

Simply put, artistic integrity is the ability to stay true to your artistic vision, standards and values even when faced with opposing values that could alter it. Each medium and artist comes with different standards for artistic integrity because each has a different set of convictions based on their craft. This is a good thing. Our differences allow us to bring other things to the table when doing collaborative projects. And if one person exceeds in one area and lacks in another, the other person can a lot of times compensate in those same areas allowing the work to be the best it can be.

But, integrity can be a social butterfly around others, talking you up. And when the door is shut, it wants nothing to do with you.

Why it’s important.

Every relationship is built on trust. And your relationship with your artistic integrity is no different. It’s building a trust you have with yourself, to do the things you promised yourself your were going to do or hold fast. For each person the specifics are different. But typically the specifics can fall into the three categories I mentioned earlier: speed, quality, cost.

Each one of these three categories has an effect on the other. If we try to get a project out too early, cutting corners perhaps, then it can effect the quality. Quality will effect cost. Either the price doesn’t match the quality, or the quality doesn’t match the price. This is where we have to decide the non-negotiable’s. It might be really important for you to get the quality of your piece as close to perfect as possible. But we have to realize in order to do that, there will be an effect on the other two in some way. This might make the price go up if you’re selling the piece or increase the amount of time it takes to make it.

Sacrifice is integrity’s younger brother. You can’t have integrity without it. So when we are choosing what lives, we condemn other things to die. We have to decide what those things are for us in our craft. Speed, quality, and cost act as umbrellas that hold many things underneath. For example, underneath quality there is material type, type of medium, brushes, paint, film, camera, and the list goes on. Each one can effect the speed and cost simultaneously. Most times we pick and choose what feels natural to us and there is value in that.

When we display our artistic integrity, we engage with our art for the right reasons. And for reasons that set well with our own conscious. If we do this time and again, we will see improvement in our work and make more sustaining and timeless work. For me, I tend to focus on the aspects of quality and speed for client work. Whenever I’m working with a client to take portraits for example, I want to deliver them a quality set of images in a timely manner. For a personal projects like the falls of the Ohio project I’ve been working on, quality and cost are my two main focuses. With speed out of the picture it gives me time to slow down and really focus on the quality. It also allows me to divide up the cost over time so I’m not buying a ton of film all at once.

Incorporating these categories into my workflow hasn’t restricted me, rather it’s given me freedom to rest in the limitations that each category provides. I’ve found I’m not constantly over working myself by trying to accomplish all three of these at one time and it’s lessened the blow of creative burnout.

How do you incorporate Artistic Integrity?

I would love to hear how your artistic integrity shows itself in your work. Are these three categories new to you? Are there instances where you had to sacrifice something in order to maintain your artistic integrity? I hope to gain insight from you stories and examples as well.

Thanks so much for reading this quick and late post. October was a super busy month, but I’m glad I was able to finish this post up only 8 days into November. Until next time!

Cheers,

Andrew