I was just about to tell you that I am sick and tired of the "easy" job photographers have of putting old work on line to score a few cents. I seldom therefore upvote YET ANOTHER monochrome sunset or a favorite pet sniffing a tulip in your garden. But you change the game somewhat. Your photos DO speak tomes in and of themselves. They ARE little stories for they appeal to the imagination. (#soyrosa has the same knack). Few words ABOUT the photographs are at all necessary.
However, it may well be a case of there being TWO camps, so your idea of splitting off a photo-only section makes sense (although it sort of already exists with birds of a feather flocking together and not appreciating non-photographers visiting with their curious observations).
There are some of us who are better at reading words, and others only need pictures.
I am personally wary of photography (in galleries, museums, awards) since it can become too much like eye-candy and this means many young people are losing their sensitivity for narrative; things have to become very instant for them; they need total pictures which give factual proof of what is.
It takes an artist to use photography to teach us to see how subjectively we see, by training us to look at the works you make objectively. Only then will the photos start to talk and tell the stories you hoped they might tell. Your words are then a great service to us.
There are photographers like yourself who very much work on projects and assignments, self-reflecting, uncovering, exploring, to give us a Gesamtwerk, which may be hard to appreciate for its two dimensional proporitions. Photos then are careful choices that mean to share and care: they mean to form communities with their communications and inspire and stimulate others. Right or wrong, you may need to have to share your angle before we can all see it that way.
In my early days here, I used to publish both old and new photography, but as I quickly run out of photos, I had to start going out and taking pictures in order to do a blog post. All of my recent posts have photos that are new and exclusive to Steem; that's how I create value for the platform.
Would you agree that instant gratification is a much broader problem? I have the feeling that it affects (negatively) all types of art and aspects of our lives.
Thank you so much for this comment @sukhasanasister! What you said means a lot to me 🙇
Totally agree.
It's always fear feeding this greedy false sense of need.
By teaching people to see we create a new calm and reassure them there is abundance you can explore with curiosity (and not rake towards you like a doomsday prepper).
You come to a place like Steemit, if you understand yourself "sent" with a mission - as one might have in the olden days - to share your talent, to educate (ex-ducere= bring out).
Those who write up their emotions educate themselves with self-reflection. But your teaching would be of a more sophisticated level. You present and invite and have to wait and see (patiently) how this makes the difference.
Fortunately, you are too old (of soul) to want instant gratification.