moving school? did you mean moving away again to a new school? if so send another message cause if not i dont want to type up a big answer to the wrong question.

What Happens Next

andrewharlow:

Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve been asking myself this question for what seems like years. Rewind to December of 2009. Was I imagining what it would be like to be followed by thousands of people? Of course not, and it still baffles me. I never saw the appeal of my blog compared to my contemporaries.

So why does this matter? Because I’m tired. Tired of what this blog has become and clueless of what direction to take it in. Initially, I planned what I can only imagine many bloggers do in my situation: monetize the site. Tumblr made this easier by introducing a “pin” feature, finally allowing some sort of method by which bloggers could give advertisers actual metrics (clicks, etc). As these things go, it was lovely at first. But as Tumblr introduced the latest “refresh” of the dashboard, they removed the pin feature and thus this blog no longer contributes to rent.

I thought of following the path of Hyde or Buy, but the time needed to get such a site running just isn’t available to me. Ultimately, selling art through the site would be a dream, but doing it by myself isn’t possible. I’ve reached out to countless partners, but no-one seems willing to take on the challenge of dealing art on Tumblr. 

So here I am. Sitting on close to 10k posts but with no direction for the future. I’m a goal oriented individual, and this kills me. For a year now I’ve queued 3 posts a day. Do I continue doing this indefinitely? More importantly, what is the point? I often wonder if the artists I post even benefit from my coverage. In my mind it’s easy to assume they do, but Tumblr’s place in the creative world seems to be shifting. In reading editorials on Hyperallergic, ‘The Problems with Tumblr and Photography,’ I can’t help but think they’re pointing at me.

Photography has made incredible progress as a way to tell stories and offer complex narratives. But combine the frequently shoddy attribution of photographic work with the incessant stream of single images on Tumblr, and you get a medium that is far removed from quite a lot of the potential of contemporary photography — the frequent noise of its proponents notwithstanding.

What is my blog, ‘if not an ‘incessant stream of single images.’ Moreover, what is the value in my blog? It feels like the creative world is split on Tumblr, not being able to reconcile the potential of a massive centralized audience with the issue of copyright.

The only way I know to bridge such obstacles is to connect with the artist in a direct manner. I tried setting up the Flickr group, and I frequently ask for submissions, but the response has been limited. I’ll continue posting submissions, but I’d be lying if I told you the process has been wildly successful, as it’s often the same group of people submitting each month.

So here we are, and now comes the time when I ask for your help. I need feedback. What is it that you want to get out of an ‘art blog’? Are you here for an ‘incessant stream of single images,’ or are you wanting something more? If you’ve been following for a while, why the hell are you still here? Tell me what you like about the blog and what you hate.

I want to start interacting with you all more, so here goes nothing.

andrewcharlow@gmail.com

Now this is nearly how I feel but a bit differently; granted I don’t have nearly as many followers as Andrew Harlow but that’s not the point. I have 10,000 of you still following this blog and I’ll post maybe one thing a day once a month at this point because I’ve become too busy to find what you guys like. So same deal (sorry for ripping off what you wrote Andrew but it works out considering I feel very similarly.)

Wait what…?

Thank yoou! Glad yah like it, (◡‿◡✿)