Luxury 2.0

Saw this post on Seth Godin's blog about how the idea of luxury is being redefined.  People that have a lot of money to spend are now less interested in the biggest / fastest / shiniest, and more interested in things that are made by hand, one at a time, requiring a massive amount of time and skill to complete. 

I like the idea of people buying things that are unique and will last a long time.  Yvon Chouinard advocated this philosophy in his book Let My People go Surfing: Buy the best quality products you can afford so that they will last as long as possible, hopefully the rest of your life.

On a related note, I just finished a shoot at the Moots factory in Steamboat Springs.  They make some of the best handmade titanium bikes in the world, and they sell for north of $3000 (frame only).  They make less than 1000 frames per year.  After taking a tour of the factory (and asking a million questions) I was truly inspired.

I've been trying to think of my work in a similar way.  I want to do more work that is collaborative in nature, and is focused on crafting, revising, and perfecting a single image, taking it to a level that is really unique and difficult for others to replicate.   Mark Zibert is really, really good at this.

This top 1% of the craft is where the real value is, and will increasingly be in commercial photography.  Nowadays the other 99% can be done by almost anyone.