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photo.net Interview: Elsa Dorfman
want. I think they have to be type A people. Singapore tomorrow. Of course, I'll be there.
Newfoundland next week, well, maybe on Thursday. Even when I was young (now turning 64), I
wasn't that kind of person. I think a photographer has to be a good business person and a good
marketer. Forgive me it is really true. It pays to have a head for business and marketing.
When I was entering the work force in the early sixties, business and marketing were dirty words.
The only thing we thought about in the sixties, at least in my crowd, was stopping the war in
Vietnam. It was a different life. I don't think we ever thought we would grow up and have to
know important stuff and support ourselves and have health insurance. If you had told me then,
that my advice to a young person contemplating a creative career in 2001 was make sure you get
health insurance, I would have roared with laughter at the insanity of such an idea. And look, it
happened.
I think it is important to remember that making it as a photographer isn't entirely dependent on
talent. I believe making it as a photographer is more about perseverance than brilliance. I know
lots of really great photographers who didn't have the stamina to plug along for more than a
decade. I don't think one has to be brilliant to make it as a photographer, rather one has to stick
with it. Be competent, reliable, do the job and a bit more. Most people are incompetent no matter
the field they are in, so the merely competent thrive. I also think one has to be lucky. One has to
figure out how to be lucky. Don't ask me, maybe it is simply karma. One has to figure out where
to be to be lucky. One has to recognize when one is lucky. Don't let the luck evaporate. And one
has to show up. That is, the work must get seen, people have to know what you're doing. Luck
isn't going to ring at your doorbell or send you an email. You have to find it, make it happen and
recognize it. I think one has to remember life is long and not be in a hurry. If you stay alive long
enough and keep working, you will probably make it. Before you know it, you're sixty, all the
more talented people are bankers or whatever and all the things you insisted were on the right
track turn out to be prescient. I guess my motto would be who knew. So photo.net is providing a
big service....
lisasurati@photo.net
Reader's Comments
I found this interview an interesting and informative insight into a prolific photographer's way of
thinking and path to success. Elsa Dorfman speaks to probably many of our hearts (certainly mine) when
she speaks of working a day job 'by default', yet being an artist on the inside.
I would have enjoyed reading even more about Elsa Dorfman's creative and technical process.
I would like to see further interviews on photo.net in the future!
-- T T, April 13, 2001
http://www.photo.net/interviews/elsadorfman/ (4 of 5)7/3/2005 2:19:48 AM