Today I want to talk about understanding your audience.
No matter what art you do, audience matters. That audience might be a client, a contest judge, your friends, social media followers, or potential buyers. The question is simple: Who are you showing your images to? You always need to know the answer.
I was recently in Antarctica, and one of the guys traveling with me said his work had changed a lot since he started selling prints on Etsy. And I said, good, that's really smart.
Once you're trying to sell your work, you should absolutely pay attention to what your audience responds to. If people are opening their wallets for certain images, why wouldn't you take that into consideration? Now, some people get really uncomfortable with that idea. They think playing to an audience somehow compromises the art. I don't see it that way. It simply means understanding the purpose of your work. If your goal is to sell prints, then the audience matters. If your goal is to win contests, the judges matter. If your goal is to build a portrait business, then the client matters. If your goal is to share with friends and family, then they matter too.
One of the things I often hear artists say is, "I only create for myself." And I think this statement is ridiculous because if you're only creating for yourself, then that work should never leave your studio. It would remain on your hard drive. It would never be posted online, entered in a photo contest, placed on a wall, or shown to anyone else. No one should ever see it. The reason we share images is because we want to communicate something of ourselves: what we're thinking, what we're feeling, or simply what we're seeing. And if what we're sharing doesn't communicate with our audience, then the image has failed. So why wouldn't you adjust your concept to help the audience understand what you were trying to communicate? I don't think there's anything dirty about this, and I certainly don't think you're a sellout if you're adjusting the way you shoot to better communicate to an audience.
I've spoken before about how to win a contest. And one of the key ideas is understanding the judges. If the purpose of entering a contest is to win, you should think carefully about the people judging the work. What kinds of images do they respond to? What colors or subjects speak to them? That's no different than understanding a client. I recently helped mentor someone starting a portrait business. She was deciding which images to present from a family session with two parents and three kids. Because of how the family was arranged, one of the children was slightly out of focus in one of the group shots. She was rather concerned about this, but I told her not to worry. She only needed to make sure the images she presented have the parents looking great and in focus. Why? Because the parents were paying the bill, and they would be the ones responsible for hiring her the next year or the year after.
The key is when people look at group photos, they almost always look at themselves first. The parents are going to look at the image and ask, "Do I look good?"They are far less likely to obsess over a child being slightly soft in a group image. Now, if it were a single portrait of that kid and the focus was off, that would be a different story. So pay attention to who the customer is. That's your audience.
Let me shift to another part of this conversation: titles.
I often hear complaints in camera club competitions that judges do not get to see the title of the image, and that is somehow unfair. I totally disagree with this. I was taught at Art Center by the great Roland Young that an image should work without words. In other words, if you place an image in front of someone, it should communicate visually and immediately. Whatever message, emotion, or idea you intend should come out through the image itself. That principle has guided my photography ever since. If my medium is a visual one, then it should not rely on extra explanation. Think about most art forms It is rare for the artist to stand beside the work and personally explain it to every viewer. A filmmaker does not pause a movie to interpret each scene. A musician does not stop the song midway to explain the chorus. The work has to stand on its own. Photography is no different. So if you know your image will be judged or viewed without a title, then it should still communicate.
And honestly, even outside competitions, I think that is a healthy standard. If your medium is visual, then ask yourself, why does the image need words to survive? Now, I'm not against titles. Titles can add depth, they can create context, they can introduce irony, humor, or another layer of meaning. But if the entire image depends on the title to function, then I think the image may have failed as a visual communicator. The title should enhance the image, not rescue it. So whether you're shooting for clients, competitions, Etsy buyers, social media, or yourself, always ask: Who is the audience? What do they care about? What are they seeing? And is the image strong enough to speak for itself?
That awareness can dramatically improve your photography.