Starving Artist

Client : How much do you charge to cover an event for a day ?

Alex :That will be 5,000 bob .

Client: Aii that’s quite a lot . Si ni kupiga picha tu (It’s just taking photos).It can’t be hard

Alex : What’s your budget?

Client : 2,000 bob .

Alex : That’s quite low, can you get to 3,000 bob atleast?

Client : No I can’t , sorry.

Alex : Okay I’ll take the 2,000 bob.

That’s basically almost how every negotiation for a job went for Alex. Fortunately or unfortunately Alex chose to be an to be an artist, to be more precise a photographer .

Alex wanted to raise the standards of the trade and stand by his decision but he had bills to pay and the jobs weren’t exactly piling up .Any job that came calling he had to answer didn’t he ? Sometimes clients would not even bother to pay for the services even after the frustrations and demands they made . One time a client decided not to pick the call on the day of the shoot and didn’t even bother to call back or apologize for the inconvenience. Then there was the “I’m giving you exposure excuse”as if exposure ever paid anyone’s bills. The struggle was real and all he could do was pray and hope for better days .

Most of his friends made fun of him sometimes even calling him a starving artist and eventually he became depressed. Sleepless nights , lots of crying , moodlessness and lack of interest in anything that mattered .

Eventually he thought he’d sell all his equipment and try another trade but this was the dream . He could not imagine himself doing anything else especially in a world were most people gave up on their dreams and a lot more who never even got to discover them but he had no choice . He put his items up for sale and as he did this he couldn’t help but cry a little. What if his luck was going to change in a few months ? Maybe even tomorrow? Was losing faith the best way to go about this ?

He did it anyway and let the universe take it’s s course . A month later he got someone to buy the camera and he thought that was good news , time to let go of that “starving artist” part of his life . It felt good but also wrong . The sale went on and while he was sitting around wondering what to do next he got a call from his friend Eve( a colleague from back when the y were in the university).

Eve was inquiring on what Alex was up to more precisely career wise . Apparently their company had an opening for a photographer and the pay was great as well . All he had to do was attend an interview the next Monday. As luck would have it he got the job and fortunately he loves and enjoys it . I guess the universe would not let him give up on his dream.

Side note: Pay all artists their jobs worth and stop the exploitation. Thank you.