20 Years, 20 Lessons
Twenty years ago this month, in September 2006, I hung out a shingle and called myself a photographer.
Last night I stood in front of a room at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center's PhotoVox series and tried to distill what those twenty years actually taught me. Not how to make a picture—photography programs cover that well—but how to build a practice that can carry you for decades.
Nobody handed me this list when I was starting out. So here it is: twenty lessons, most of them learned the hard way. Swipe through.
A few of them still sting a little (the Fong Dong Lightsphere, I'm looking at you). A few I'd tattoo on a first-year student if they'd let me. Keep your overhead low. Write every morning. Track your editions. Standardize your framing. And the one I come back to most: the work has to be worth doing even if nobody cares.
Thank you to CPAC for the invitation, to everyone who showed up, and to the clients, collectors, curators, and fellow artists who kept this thing alive for two decades. Here's to the next twenty!
If you want to go deeper on any of this, I'm teaching the business side of the practice this fall and winter:
→ Sept 22 — Building a Squarespace website, with Maine Media
→ Sept 29–Oct 13 — From Studio to Screen: Crafting Your Artist Website
→ Dec 8–15 — Prints and Profit: Creating Sales in the Fine Art World
→ Feb 27–28, 2027 — Selling Fine Art Photography: a two-day masterclass on pricing, editions, collectors, and professional practice with Colorado Photographic Arts Center
