Hoist by my own petard

Well, well, well. Who would have thought that our little blog, in a far flung corner of the world, would generate so much controversy ?

In the last couple of weeks, I have been subject to aggressive and overly defensive messages regarding my posts. This has been directed at me off-blog, before any one reader might incorrectly think this is about them.

Let me make it crystal clear that this blog is not intended as a criticism of any one person, or their art. This post, for example, is absolutely not intended to be about anyone in particular. It is about how I feel, based on the barrage of strange emails and messages I am getting as a result of starting this blog.

The blog appears to be a double-edged sword.

We are proud to be getting a loyal readership that come back every day or two to see what we’ve been up to in our little photographic bubble. This is fantastic. I love this. It is the reason I started the blog. I hope folks come back for both the photographs and the writing.

I love what I do. I am developing a real passion for the craft of writing, both on and off-blog. I tend to write emotionally, despite Rich telling me this is a bad idea. But this is how I write. I call it like I see it, and this is who I am.

But the very nature of spilling your emotional guts on a public blog means that people whom you’ve never met tend to assume they know you, judge you and send you messages of a very personal nature.
God how I wish I hadn’t posted some of my past entries. Yes I could delete them, but then that wouldn’t be honest, now would it ? I believe words should stand, even if I was way too open with my emotions (and potentially a total idiot) for posting them.

During the last few weeks, I have been approached by several photographers and male models off-list. Some of these have been lovely, and some haven’t. The ones that haven’t have resulted in my announcement that I am not going to be shooting nude with other photographers for now. This is partly a result of personal injury (see last post), but if I am honest, it is also because the blog has generated way too many dodgy modelling offers.
This is totally my own fault, as I did say a few posts back that I didn’t charge for shoots and I only shoot for art. I then joked that I would be approached with loads of offers for shoots.

Boy was I right. I guess more people were reading this than I thought.

And what is it about blogging that some readers think that certain entries are directed specifically at them ? A curious phenomenon, don’t you think ? But one which several folks subscribe to.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I am asking people to send nice messages to me. Be polite. Be a credit to your profession. My comments on the blog are not directed at you.

And to the one photographer who won’t take no for an answer, who messages me whilst drunk, who is generally making my life miserable, please : GO AWAY!

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention the word “creep” once !


Kate T