by deryck | Mar 30, 2017 | inspirational, life, love, The Universe
There are few things that teach us about life like life itself. I realised a while ago that once you take a stand on something, a belief, philosophy, statement of faith, you will be tested on it. The Universe has a sneaky way of doing this, usually in a subtle way that’s barely noticeable unless you’re aware of it, often with a liberal dash of humour.
My son, David, is an amazing child. He’s also very challenging. He was sent to make me stronger, something that he does on a daily basis. Last night I was cooking supper, freshly made butternut soup, while I was helping him with a school project on leopards. The idea was that he would use my computer for research while I was preparing the soup. For some unfathomable reason women seem to think that men are lying when we say that we cannot multi-task. We can’t. Seriously.
I wasn’t concentrating on cooking properly as I was fielding David’s constant barrage of questions and insistence for help and mistook cayenne pepper for paprika. David doesn’t eat spicy (burny in his words) food. Realising my mistake on tasting the soup I had to make a plan. Pouring off the liquid I managed to salvage some of the chunks of butternut that were still cooking. I placed these in the blender and topped it up with milk, thinking that the milk would knock the edge off the cayenne pepper remnants. Placing the lid on the blender I felt an all too familiar niggle but pressed play anyway. The lid blew off the blender, covering me and immediate surrounds in boiling hot, blended, supposed to be oh so delicious, butternut soup. I’m doing laundry today. With stain remover.
The resulting butternut soup was still too spicy for David who refused to eat it.
The lesson I learnt from this is simple. When you end up in the pressure cooker and feel that niggle, don’t press play. Stop, take a deep breath, exhale slowly. Listen to your Self. It may save you a lot of laundry. And stain remover.
by deryck | Jan 14, 2017 | life, photography, the business of photography
I love the clever, quirky lines on pics on what it means to be an artist/freelancer/photographer, that make their way around the internet. I received an email today from a Royalty Free Image Library (no name as they don’t deserve the publicity) inviting me to use their iPhone App and make money from my pictures. Naturally, as a professional photographer, I investigated this.
Their terms told me that I can earn from 30-60% of the price they sell the images for, royalty free. So how much does that translate into in moneys worth? Effectively they’re offering me $0,216 at 30% up to $0,432 at 60% per picture that they sell, depending on their sliding scale ‘loyalty’ program. Royalty free. Clearly their business model is based on volume sales. The fact that they’re destroying the true value of photography seems to evade them.
As a commercial photographer I am commissioned to create images on a ‘Rights Managed‘ basis. This means that I control the use of the image, and sell the license for use thereof. The use of images is controlled by three factors being time, territory and media. Time, measured in years, territory being the number of countries and media being the number of different kinds of media the image is used in. What most photographers don’t know is that this is where the true financial value of photography lies.
If you don’t believe me ask Bill Gates.
Bill did not become one of the wealthiest men in the world by selling software. He made his money selling the license for use of the software. The value lies in the intellectual property behind the software, just as the true financial value of photography lies in the intellectual property behind the photograph.
South Africa has a sordid history on many levels, one of the less publicized being the blatant abuse of author’s (artists/designers/photographers/writers) international copyright by companies (corporations). One of the biggest media companies in South Africa abused photographers international copyright for decades with the attitude of, “What are you going to do about it?” Ironically they expanded into China.
The value of intellectual property is held in such high esteem by the international community that not only was it the key issue at the Berne Convention in 1886 but more recently it was enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations under Article 27 (2):
Article 27(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Both the Berne Convention and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights specify that the Author of the works has the right to protection NOT the owner of the copyright therein, if the owner of the copyright is not the Author of the works. The international community values the creations of our minds so highly yet companies (corporations) choose to rather exploit it. It sickens me to see authors struggling to pay their bills while the companies they freelance for declare record profits and increases in share values.
Perhaps if there were less sociopaths running companies the world wouldn’t be in the turmoil it is today. The relentless pursuit of profit = greed to the detriment of humanity. It’s time for business with conscience. For the sake of humanity.
by deryck | Sep 19, 2014 | fashion, fashion film, life, love, moving image, The Universe
Life is made up of moments. Some lost. Some missed. Some treasured.
During the course of every day we experience these moments, some more significant than others.
Sometimes we connect with a stranger, an unspoken exchange, a knowing that stirs our soul. Sometimes we act on this but most often we don’t. Most often our social conditioning reins us in, losing everything but the memory of the moment, treasured until it too fades.
Moments is a short fashion film by Deryck vS
by deryck | Feb 16, 2014 | environment, inspirational, life, love, The Universe
In the beginning there was light.
People created tools to shape and capture the light.
People expressed themselves through the light.
And the light shaped people.
by deryck | Feb 16, 2014 | fine art, inspirational, life
Sex sells. We know it does.
Every day we’re bombarded with images and footage of sexy people telling us we’re not them. We want to be, aspire to be, but never will be. No matter how hard we try we’re never good looking enough, slim enough, fit enough. We’re not wearing the right labels, or the labels we’re wearing are sooo last season.
We’re dissatisfied with ourselves. We feel like we’re never good enough, never cool enough, never have enough.
Even our Marxist/Socialist Freedom Fighters who ‘fought’ for the ‘liberation’ of this country have become reborn capitalists, the ideas and principles they ‘fought’ for, ‘suffered’ for, have been discarded like a used, government issue condom that was stapled to a HIV/AIDS awareness leaflet. Now it’s all about labels for them. ‘Their people’ can wait.
Banksy‘s artwork of the soft drink bottle (the one that promises an amazing lifestyle all over the world but in truth is so incredibly bad for you) with his message forming it’s outline is well worth the read. It’s been said that the art of advertising is to encourage a consumer to buy a product or service that they don’t necessarily need in such a way that their life feels incomplete if they don’t. Banksy was on the button.
The thing is that there’s this insatiable monster called ‘progress’. When things have been ‘improved’ we need to know about it. Right? Someone has to tell us that the latest car uses less fuel, is more biodegradable, has a smaller carbon footprint. And they need to tell us in a way that will capture our attention so that we get the message. Right?
So if we kill advertising then how will we know? Whatever ‘new’ solution we come up with is just another form of advertising.
Perhaps the solution is to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help I Jah. Super models are sexy. So is a Ferrari although how many of us want to, realistically, honestly, drive a Ferrari every day? How many of us can afford to?
Western Capitalism is based on ‘ownership mentality’. We become slaves to debt to be able to say “What do you think of MY new car/house/clothes/etc?” when in truth it does not belong to us until paid for in full. The entire Western Capitalist financial system is based on this, on getting us into debt and keeping us there, making us slaves to that debt.
One of the fundamental differences between the rich and the poor is that poor people work for money whilst rich people make their money work for them. Rich people know that one of the secrets to wealth creation is not getting into debt. Debt costs far more than most investments can return.
So why were we not taught this in school? Or by our parents? Or by anyone else who cared enough to share this with us? Why do my childrens ‘savings’ accounts cost more in monthly bank charges than the ‘interest’ they receive?
Let’s follow Banksy’s example and tell the truth. Let’s educate our children about the truth of this world. Let’s teach them that money is not the root of all evil but the love of money is. Money is a tool to be used wisely. Let’s teach them the truth about debt traps and how much debt truly costs. Let’s change this twisted, greed ridden system from the inside out. Let’s be the change we want to see in the world.
We know that the glitz and glam is just erotic soft porn designed to turn us on, fill us with lust for something that we actually don’t really need, that in truth will not necessarily improve our human experience. Humanity is about people. It is not about selling ourselves and those around us for the next best thing. It’s about caring for and helping one another for the greater good. The greater good being the true happiness of humanity as a whole. I cannot help but wonder how we justify selling a house for R300 million when 30km away people go to bed in a leaking shack, hungry. How do we justify CEOs earning so much more than the leaders of countries whilst their staff on the floor struggle to put food on the table?
It was greed that plunged the world into the ‘financial crisis’ we find ourselves in. The greed of people who did not care about the consequence of their actions and profited ridiculously from it whilst the rest of us carry the cost. We are still paying for that greed.
It’s time for a new way of thinking. Thinking based on love and mutual respect. It’s time for truth, transparency and accountability. It’s time for big business to conduct it’s affairs ethically and to make the state of humanity more important than the pursuit of maximum profit.
We are no longer consumers, conned by slick lines and psychological marketing tricks. We’re now prosumers, proactive about the way we spend our hard earned money. Let’s demand the truth. In everything. About everything. For the sake of the future of our home, Mother Earth.
It’s time for change.
by deryck | Feb 16, 2014 | life, photography, reportage
Every so often I’m commissioned to do a shoot that catches me by surprise. My latest body of work ‘Full Circle’ is one of those. ‘Full Circle’ is currently being exhibited online by the Creative Collaborative Collective. ‘Full Circle’ examines the end of the cycle of life.
We start out as babies, unable to care for ourselves, completely dependent on those around us for our survival. Our lives tend to end the same way should we make it to old age. The smallest tasks can become the biggest challenges for the aged. The simplest task of getting up and going to the toilet can become a massive challenge. Loneliness an even greater one.
During our youth time flies. In old age time becomes the enemy, looking for ways to make it pass, to fill it with anything other than the thought that we are waiting for God to take us. Time becomes the void in which our memories of what we have, or have not, done haunt us. When we die we take none of the possessions we worked so hard for with us.
Some believe the only thing we take with us is our memories. Some believe that hell is living with those memories for eternity. In many indigenous cultures around the world the aged are respected as people with wisdom, people to listen to, to seek counsel from. In western culture the aged tend to be discarded, locked away and made someone else’s ‘problem’ to care for.
We are all going to travel ‘Full Circle’ should we live long enough. Perhaps it’s time for us to review our thinking.
