If you think photography is like biking, and that you never forget it, well, that’s not really true.

If you stop it for a while, you’ll need some time to readjust. You might have forgotten what you thought you had acquired for good. You’ll probably search for some specific functions of your camera because you have forgotten where to change those settings.

You would need to press the shutter to get back the feeling, to see if it has the same appeal to you than before.

You might be, like I was, be scared to check the results. This sensation might be multiplied if, like I am, you’re not a very good photographer.

Hear me out, I don’t mean it in an objective way. Because I always delivered satisfactory pictures to clients, who were constantly satisfied. I even occasionally gained their trust enough to be hired regularly.

But I never had the true feeling of accomplishment, neither the satisfaction that I delivered a very good result.

My impression, after completing an assignment, was rather a relief that it was over.

And that’s a huge problem because it led me to accept low rates, as if I was feeling guilty to charge more for something of which I didn’t see any value.

My issue now is that I don’t know what else to do.

My second problem is that AI does it better than me. So I’m scientifically proved to be useless as a product photographer.

I underwent an ablation.

Somewhat not physically painful, I however feel the lack of exercise that photography often requires.

It’s morally exhausting, though. Constantly feeling this void, and trying to fill it up.

The pinch of nostalgia, the bitterness when cancelling newsletters, notifications of all the photography related websites, pages, competitions or news.

Strangely, I don’t really feel sadness. Because I know -and I see- that many other photographers do it way better than me. So, great images will still be created. Although most of them scattered in a vast ocean of average aesthetics, if not conformist mediocrity.

Because, what we need is not more photographers, but unique, rare, uncommon, special ones.

And moreover, we need curators, educated and versed in arts, who can recognise singularity, explain it to the crowd.

We don’t need more images, we need better ones.