Losing Interest

 I seem to be losing interest in seeing photography exhibitions, buying photo books, and even speaking with other photographers. With that broad statement let me be more specific. For photography exhibitions I have a better chance of seeing a unicorn in Philadelphia. We have no real photography galleries and most of what is shown is the result of pay to play competitions. If you want to see a proper exhibition you have to travel 100 miles north to New York City but even there most of what you'll see is either from the dead or those closing in on it. I love photo books and to tell you the truth I would rather publish books than have exhibitions. The problem is the huge amount of photo books being published around the same time about the same subject. Take a look on Amazon (I hate Amazon) and search for latest photo books published on New York City. I came up with a couple dozen in the last year. Publishers think because it's New York City it will automatically sell well. Hell they might be right, I've seen more NYC photography and books in people's homes in Philadelphia than those about Philadelphia. I can't remember when the last street photography or documentary photography book on Philadelphia was published, or if ever. What about Boston, Detroit, Seattle, Miami, etc, etc ? the whole thing is very lopsided. As for speaking to other photographers, most of my communication to those are either by email or social media messages and not to those in Philadelphia. It seems that all the ones I use to talk to a decade ago became more reclusive as they became older. It also seems that while the under 38 photographers only congregate amongst their own generation the rest of the photographer community has shrunk or moved away. I'm not ashamed to say I'm jealous when I see an exhibition in NYC and I see a dozen photographers that I know of in a group talking. My last couple of years in center city I felt most isolated as a photographer and since I've moved eight months ago out to the city's border I've felt like I'm in photographers purgatory. Maybe it's time that I myself become more of a recluse.