The toughest part of handling rejection

So yesterday I found out that a photo contest I entered last year – the Soho Photo “Krappy Kamera” competition – came through with none of my pictures getting accepted into the show.

I mean, it shouldn’t bother me.  I’ve battled through things like the Altamont Curse in my photographic journey.  I’ve challenged what I can do with a camera.  I’ve focused on what is possible and what isn’t possible, and how to make what isn’t possible possible.

But at the other end of the spectrum… are the rejections.  The idea that I could put up my best work in a competition… and it would get tossed away.  Maybe my photo was the 50th best in the competition, and they only took the best 49.  Or maybe mine was unknowingly too similar to three other images that were submitted, and all four got bounced.  I don’t know.

So what can I do in a situation like this?

I could sit in a corner and cry for a day.  I’ve done that before.  But that was a pre-49th resolution Chuck.

Instead, I could use the rejection as a motivational tool – to improve what I can create and to keep powering forward, never giving up on what I believe until my dreams come true.

The thing is… I have so many photo projects in production right now, photo projects you have absolutely no idea about.  And if I told you what they were, you’d go, “Hokey smokes, that’s pretty awesome, how did you come up with those concepts?”  At least I HOPE you would say that. 🙂

And I look around in the TU blogosphere and I can see that my fellow bloggers are going through much more pain than me just getting bounced from a competition.  Heck, Jeannine Trimboli is going through some life changes that would shake anybody to their core.  Gina Peca still tries to find joy and happiness after personal loss.  Compared to what they’re challenged with every day, my travails are minimal at best.

I have to remain motivated.  I can’t give up.  It’s just photos.  Yeah, they’re MY photos, they’re MY concepts and MY constructs… and it’s how I challenge my craft.

And on the day that I received news about the Soho Photo competition…

I received a package in the mail.  All the way from Austria.

It was a box of custom-printed film from the Revolog company.  Last year, Revolog’s pre-printed lightning-striked Tesla 2 film helped me capture the image at left, Jesus Saves.  This picture took silks at the Vermont State Fair and at the Big E, and I feel it still has some possibilities for 2015.

In addition to rolls of Tesla 2 (and Tesla 1, which features blue-white lightning strikes), the package included a couple of rolls of Lazer film (blue-white linear streaks throughout the entire roll) and Snovlox film (a limited-edition B&W film with little snow-white blobs in the emulsions).

From this I can create.

I’ve also been experimenting with my new Krasnognorsk FT-2 “Raskolnikov” panoramic camera.  In fact, the first pictures I took in 2015 were with that camera.  As soon as McGreevy Pro Lab opens for business (after its post-holiday run), I have some rolls of 35mm film that I hope will impress and inspire.

From this I can create.

My Kodak Medalist II is currently part of a year-long project, for which I cannot describe online yet, but whose images have turned out better than I expected.  If this Medalist project works, it could give me a print that will knock everybody’s flip-flops off.

From this I can create.

And I haven’t given up on digital product.  I have at least two projects with my Nikon Df that I think will totally mesmerize.  These are things for which I can’t ever let go.

From this I can create.

If the world around me is collapsing, if my emotions are spinning like the third wheel in a one-armed bandit, if I still have a chance in this world, if I still can ride this merry-go-round one more time…

Then I’ll do it.

I can handle rejection.  I should be able to, I’ve been rejected so many times I feel like a disco record in a redneck bar’s jukebox.  But whatever I go through in my life, whatever comes down on me…

Let it.  Because I’ll turn that pain into a photo.  I’ll turn that heartache into a construct.  And come the day when that photo is adorned with a silk ribbon… then in that moment, I will truly realize that I can survive and thrive and take nobody’s jive.

The toughest part of handling rejection?  Letting it control you, letting it bind you like a cargo net.

Haul that net away.  Rejecting me this year means that I’ll try twice as hard next year.

And one day… when every hour could be a joy to me… And live a life the way it’s meant to be … sing it, Midge Ure and Ultravox!  Motivate me!!!!