On Giving Up

Have had no DSL for a few days and going through a huge backlog of posts to read. Alec posted something the other day that really struck me. This quote is from Gerhard Steidl. He publishes photography books:

After printing for several years, I looked at what I’d done and was never really satisfied with myself. I thought I wasn’t talented enough and didn’t want to end up as a third rate artist in some Hicksville town and only ever look up to others better than me. I thought it would be much more exciting to work with and for those great artists…

I'm feeling this way lately. I don't take enough time to make good work and when I do shoot something that's personal, I usually end up just being incredibly angry with my output. (Though after a few days in the hard drive, things start looking better as my preconceived notion of what it should have looked like starts fading out.) But it frequently brings up Steidl's decision to just give it up.