It’s a bad time for professional and especially semi-professional photographers - unless you’re well known already and have clients. The other day, I mentioned how I had talked to a local gallery owner who told me how slow business was. A couple of days later, I read a story in The Economist (the British semi-official organ of the Republican/Tory Party) about the advertizing industry which isn’t doing too well. Business is slow, and nobody knows when money is coming back. And yesterday, I received an update from Desert Doplhin. Business is slow, sluggish, you name it. It seems even the big agencies are having troubles. The good thing about the guys at DD is that they’re not gouging their photographers like certain other very big agencies. So I think I’m actually fairly lucky - despite non-existing sales. And I have no intention to explore other roads. I’m not going to prostitute myself as a photographer. There are way too many talented photographers out there doing “glamour” photography or related stuff (btw, RIP, Herb Ritts, I wish you hadn’t wasted your talent the way you did it). But can you blame them? I don’t know. People will always tell you how you need to make some money etc. so why not do those commercial assignments which add no value whatsoever to your portfolio? Well, I guess, it’s everybody’s personal choice. And the question of artistic integrity is a tricky one anyway. I’m fairly lucky I have my day job - which I really enjoy - and maybe some day there’ll be some money made from photography. This is I’m not in it for the money. I actually wouldn’t mind showing my photos in a gallery and not selling a single photo. Oh well, I’m rambling… Time to stop.