About

Technically this is grumpymonk.com v3.0

The first two incarnations of grumpymonk were photoblogs on wordpress and pixelpost.   I intially switched to pixelpost for the simpler interface that highlighted my photography as I wasn’t very interested in talking about my work.  After a year or so ago I switched over to flickr to take advantage of the community aspects and I found that I preferred sharing my work there rather than as a stand-alone blog.

Grumpymonk 3.0 (new, improved, optimized, or not) is focused on my experience with photography.   I primarily shoot black and white film, develop by hand, and then scan my film.  I do have a certain amount of darkroom experience and prefer to produce prints the old fashioned way but the majority of my photos are scanned and edited using photoshop.   In speaking about my experience as a photographer and thinking about photography I hope to provide some insight or at the very least amusement to others.

While this blog is focused on silver based photograpahy I did learn using a digital camera and in no way do I think silver either format is superior, they’re just different approaches to the same goal.  Doing Stuff.  I’ve found photography to be a wonderfully democratic pasttime as it admits anyone with or without formal training to pick up a camera of any shape, size, and pricetag and produce something they can share with others.

In addition to discussing photography itself I’ve found myself increasingly interested in the economics and politics of pursuing the creative impulse in a capitalist society.   What does it mean to be an artist?  What does it mean to be a photographer?  Why does everyone ask me if I make money at this?