New York City

It's been in my head all day... living in NYC. Before any of you start to wonder, shit is Loomis about to announce he's going to move?!... no, I'm not. But I've been thinking about The City this morning after reading Martin's new post and then giving a small interview about my early days in photography, during a time when I thought I was about to grab my shit and bolt to Brooklyn like a lot of friends of mine have and did.

It was so romantic in the fall of 2000 when everyone seemed to be heading that way. Before the towers, after I had been totally devastated and saved by Kim's photo story class, and right when I had begun to understand that I would never work full-time at a newspaper... there it was, NYC.

But I didn't, and I'm not sure I would even still be in photography if I would have. Honestly, the secret of my success as a freelance photographer, outside of ego or talent or luck or savvy, has had a lot to do with my being based outside a major U.S. market, and certainly far away from Manhattan.

Before Miami I worked out of Raleigh/Durham for two years, and though I had no idea at the time that I moved, on a whim, really, from my hometown in Tallahassee, it was a great decision and I had a relatively easy time picking up odd jobs from a large variety of clients who were desperately looking for someone to shoot a portrait in bum-fuck Carolina. It was a perfect fit... I didn't have that much experience, and they were in need. Moving on past being the guy-in-the-right-place is another challenge and post altogether; but North Carolina allowed me a solid start in the business in an affordable place to live.

After a while the relaxed pace of Durham got to me -- though, it was certainly a lot more relaxed before the Duke lacrosse rape scandal that occurred, allegedly, right next door to my old house -- and after 2 years I wanted to escape to a bigger market and somewhere with more energy. Miami was an easy answer... my native state, birth city, new home to my girlfriend who had just started med school, and a much larger and more diverse market. At the time, though I didn't understand it like this, I felt like the years were slipping through my fingers, and that very soon I'd be 30, happily living in an old house in Durham and in no need of challenging myself with anything more. That wouldn't have been bad, but I wanted to roll the dice for something else, and more.

Even in North Carolina -- America's home of tobacco and hogs -- I was deeply connected to NYC for just about everything that I did. Then and now I have very few regional or local clients. Almost every call that matters to me, business-wise, pops up as a 212, 917, 718, or 646. In Miami the conduit is even more pronounced, and sometimes you feel like there must be a metro stop somewhere in Manhattan that terminates in South Beach.

Throughout my career, just about every month (only because I don't care to listen up for it... if I did it would be every week, I'm sure), I hear about another inexperienced photographer and their grand plans to pull up their road stake and head to the Apple. More often than not, I think, they'll end up working at Apple, if they are lucky. And recently a friend of mine actually got in a very heated argument with a supremely self-confident and impressively inexperienced friend of theirs after hearing that he also had it all figured out.

Maybe some day I will feel like there is a place for me in NYC. I don't know what it will take... but feel like it could be an option in another few years. But I'm pretty stunned by the stupidity that I see in this industry via so many freelance photographers immediate move to NYC. Especially at a time when technology has connected us all in such an immediate way, and when New York has become ever more expensive to live in (Miami is very very pricey too, actually), moving to New York without immediate and full prospects seems like just about the worst business decision one can make.

But that's just it, isn't it... its not about business for the thousand young photographers who will move to work this year? month? and look to make a name for themselves. Its an emotional thing. A test. A need. And their emotions are the only way to find the resolve and throw caution to the wind... on paper of course its hilariously stupid, but in the mind, over a couple of pints, its that same romance. And that is what is and will always be so compelling about a place so many people move to despite being terrified of what may happen... all of that energy and fear is in the air; it's incredible. Putting yourself to the test was the reason I wanted to move in college, and the reason I still want to now.

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