A Cold Pizza and Coffee Update - The Taylor Swift vs. Ticketmaster issue.

If you, dear reader, have been paying attention to the news over the past month or so, you most likely have caught some of the stories concerning the issues between the upcoming Taylor Swift “Eras” tour and Ticketmaster…and the inability of Ticketmaster to do online sales of the tours tickets.

Swift's public relations and management teams have placed all blame on Ticketmaster and even went as far as saying that they had to work with Ticketmaster, that they had no other choice.

All of this has led to Swift's fan base to bring legal action against Ticketmaster as well as an Congressional investigation into what happened.

This is all crazy…and I think that people are pointing fingers in the wrong direction. Now I will state right here that I have photographed a LOT of Live Nation shows…which owns Ticketmaster, but that has not influenced my thought process at all. In fact, I believe that it has helped it. Especially knowing how many other production companies are out there who could had worked with Swift and her shows.

See, Swift and her team knew which venues she wanted to play; some of the largest NFL Stadiums in the country to gross the largest profit. I am sorry if you don't like reading that…but it is true. Also, Swift set her ticket prices, end of story. That is one reason why Ed Sheeran's prices are a fraction of Swift's prices…as well as Luke Combs and the Billy Joel/Stevie Nicks tours, all of which are also going through Arrowhead Stadium in my local Metro area.

So, knowing that the original ticket prices were jacked up because of Taylor's demands, sets the stage of where our story starts. Then, before the tickets went on sale…she doubled down on each venue, offering two dates at each concert stop instead of one. This proves that she knew what she was doing prior to the sales.

And I know what you are thinking…”ok, that doesn't prove anything.” But it does. Ticketmaster is not the only promotions and booking agency out there. Yes, they are one of the largest ones…but there are also other larger ones out there. For instance, let's look at the Dead and Company's final tour this summer. They are playing stadiums as well. Some rather large, like during the 4th of July weekend, they are in Boulder, CO playing a three day festival there (I call it a festival because…well…it is The Dead and it is three days in a row. It will be fun regardless). This is not a Live Nation's show. At least not from the last time I looked or talked to anyone about it. Instead, it is an AEG show. They are handling everything for this tour stop.

So with that being said, there are other venues out there that Swift's people could have selected, other production companies that they could have worked with. They choose to work with Live Nation and Ticketmaster. No one forced them too. Swift wanted to perform at the largest venues that she could to turn as much profit as she could for this tour. That is why she selected the venues that she did, to hold as many fans as possible. She even doubled down in those cities to increase her profit without having to add more tour stops along the way. If she didn't want to work with Ticketmaster or Live Nation…she had the choice not to. All of this was her doing, no one else's. Also, the issues with Ticketmaster and their website and fees have been known for a LONG time. Anyone who has been to a concert and bought their tickets from them over the past 30 years have known this. It is not anything new. But Ticketmaster is not the only ticket outlet out there either. Swift and her team could have selected any other outlet they wanted if they went with different venues. But again, they didn't.

So let's sit back for a second and look. Swift's people knew what they were doing when they started to book this show. They had full control over everything. They selected who they wanted to work with, and it doesn't matter if they want to admit it or not. It is just the way the world works. By them calling wolf and blaming Ticketmaster for everything and saying that they had no choice but to work with them is shady, and I actually congratulate Live Nation and Ticketmaster for being the bigger people here and not pointing fingers and doing the blame game in return.

Yes, their website failed when the presale tickets went live. No one is denying that. But for Swift putting all the blame on them and saying they had no choice…100% incorrect.

Cold Pizza and Coffee - What Academia has wrong.

Okay…so I said it. There is something wrong with academic institutions and what they are trying to teach. And I will say one more thing…before I get into things. Gallery Exhibitions are fun. I love them…but they are not everything. Not even close, especially in the world of photography.

So, let's talk about an exhibition. Yes, you have to apply and get accepted to a gallery…were you are able to show around 30 of your works and have some food and wine and be able to rub shoulders with the community that comes in to view your work. However, most of those people are going to be your friends (and if they are like mine…they will be more interested in the free wine because they have seen your work way too much). There might be a few people off the street that wonder in…but for the most part, you will know know the vast majority of people who will be at your exhibition and chances are…you will not sale any work…at least not for a long time. Even with a degree or advanced degree.

So what then? What does academic institutions have wrong? For photography? Commercial use…or rather how actually make a profit from your work.

Now before I go further, I will say that I LOVE Exhibitions. I really do. There is something magical about them. And they are very good to have your work looked at by people…regardless of how many people are at the opening. However, in my experience, many more people have become familiar with my work through being published. I have sold more images through my published work. I have had more opportunities through my published work; and throughout my time in college (from undergraduate to graduate school and eventually teaching at the college level) no one tell the students that this avenue is even an option. Programs in college stress so hard the gallery experience…even in the field of photography, when this field has many different avenues.

I have had my fair shares of Exhibitions, from local ones in the Kansas City Metro Area to Time Square, to over in Europe. And that is just fine. I loved opening day, seeing everyone, drinking a little while and talking about my work. But once those opening receptions are done, then what? The work sits there for a month or so until your exhibition closes and on to the next artist.

However, hooking up with a local publication, in my case The Pitch out of Kansas City, has seemed to give me MUCH more opportunities than what the galleries do. I get paid a small amount for my work (something EVERY artists dreams of, getting paid for their work) and I get a ton more eyes on my photos than what I would at a gallery. Each time I shoot for the publication, it is a new experience…a new band that I have not worked with before, and I get the chance to continue to work on a collection that is on going in the field of documentary photography. Yes, it is photographing bands which some local art magazines consider it too “pop culture”… even after featuring me as an up and coming, noteworthy artist to look out for, but so what?

I asked another photographer, who happens to also do concert photography and is a good friend of mine, which would he choose, an exhibition of his work OR the publication of his work in a magazine. He stated the following:

“I would say the publication. A gallery is ephemeral. The publication gives me immortality.”

And this statement I agree with. I have even curated an exhibition of printmaking work from the Renaissance in famous books (like the Nuremberg Chronicles as a prime example) and as we come up on the 10th year anniversary of that exhibition, no one really remembers it, let alone cares about it. There are only a few records of that exhibition that are tucked away at the institute that I curated the exhibition for, and that is about it. Even Google searches are hard to find about this exhibition, which a lot of local news outlets covered it! So there was a lot of press about it during the time…press even reached out across the state to St. Louis and up into Nebraska…so other states picked it up, but then years on…it is only a faint memory.

So what should the goal be for photography in academia? Simple. To create. Don't have specific motives in mind. Someone might want to have an exhibition of their work…and that is fine. Guide them towards that. But the gallery is NOT the only option that we photographers have out there. We are a diverse group of people that can really go forward and be happy just creating. If we publish our work in a book and never have Exhibitions…then so what? Why not have a student who is enrolled in a photography program at a school not want to go and try to work for National Geographic or Reuters? If that is what they want to do, it earns then a decent pay check, and they are happy…then let them do it. Don't discourage them and say they should be in the journalism department or something like that. Take them under your belt and show them how to improve their work so when they are done with the program, they are creating as gorgeous images as the next student…but yes…encourage them to also take a few journalism classes so they can see what they will be doing and to get experience under their belt in that field.

Even as I write this, I received a rejection letter for an adjunct position at a local community college in Overland Park, KS (for an unknown reason) and notice that my photographs, that I shot for a new advertising campaign Capelli Sportswear, went live earlier this week. My only speculation is that I only had two Exhibitions of my work in 2022, while I focused more on publication and in total had over 100 of my photoshoots published in the same year. We, as photographers, are in a very special area of the fine arts world where we don't need to rely strictly on galleries to show and promote our work. Why not exploit that to the best of our abilities?

So all in all, let the students experiment and create, see what is best for them. Gallery Exhibitions are fine and all, but should not be the final determination of a photographers worth. There is much more that can be assessed than how many gallery showings one can do in a certain time period. Personally, I could go back to having six or more Exhibitions per year. But really? Let me hear from a photo editor that the image I took was amazing, have a check wrote to me, and let thousands of people all over the world see it.