Andreas F. Bobak is a photographer and user interface developer. He runs his own studio
which is located in the old town of Zurich, Switzerland.Am I Worthy?
published on 02 September 2011
CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee!
As well as finding us in Zurich at the Cafe Casablanca, sister events are held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and soon Chicago and London.
May saw my chance to stand up and speak about the subject that is closest to my heart: photography.
Not only could I use this opportunity to explain why and how the process of becoming a photographer has taken up so much of my life over the past few years, I could also use it to introduce an organization that I have become very attached to during this time - the vfg - to a wider audience.
The vfg, for whom I have been voted on as Actuary, is an association of around 270 creative photographers whose aim is to strengthen the position of professional photography, and raise public awareness of photography in general. The yearly ewz.selection competition that they organize is a very successful way to achieve these aims.
ewz.selection has become the Swiss platform for professional photography. With its Preview Day, Swiss Portfolio Day and Photo Collection, it lends visual media professionals support and provides them with a network. It has been raising public awareness of photography since 1997 by means of its award, its exhibition, its catalogue and other features.
As I am proud to be an active member of the vfg, which of course would not have been possible if I hadn’t discovered photography - or did it discover me? - I found talking about my growth to becoming a “professional” photographer and the growth of the organization that supports them in my home country of Switzerland, linked very nicely together.
Of course I was also influenced by Mike Monteiro’s talk “Fck you, pay me” from the San Francisco chapter of CreativeMornings, I nearly called my presentation: “Why the fck should you get paid like a professional?”. But because I’m not known for my expletives, I went with: “Am I worthy?”
The only way you can make up your mind if I am or not is by clicking on this link and viewing what I had to say for yourself.
How did my talk go down? Well very well I would say, although I was a bit over ambitious on the amount of gipfeli I brought with me for the audience to nibble on while listening to me. Perhaps they were too engrossed in my presentation to eat! What is for certain is that I didn’t want to waste the pastries so consumed them for breakfast, lunch and tea and convinced everyone who came into contact with me for the rest of the day to help me out in this task.
Thanks to Heike Grasser from the vfg for taking photos
