The seventieth video of "Short Monologues by Platon Rivellis on Photography and Art" (2nd series, 2017).

Every artist, every creator primarily creates for themselves; however, if placed on a deserted island, they could no longer create. Communication with the outside world influences in two ways. Firstly, the outside world feeds their life with emotions, sensations, and experiences. Secondly, they address their work to others, after satisfying their personal need, it complements it because through it they communicate with their relatives, their loved ones, those around them, and strangers. Especially, they communicate in the abstract manner of art after they have realized that the method of oral or written communication through words cannot easily touch the essential things that concern them, since these are not only meaningful but also transcendent and abstract and subconscious. Hence, there is a need for communication. How is this communication ensured? Obviously, in the case of photography, through exhibitions and publications, editions, books. This process also has another very beneficial result and dimension for the photographer. The ease, the relative ease, the apparent ease of the photographic art and process tends to turn the photographer into an opportunistic artist, not a full-time one, so to speak. Therefore, they must protect this medium they serve first with a ceremonial process and secondly with a communication process. This communication also helps the photographer because it makes them concentrate on their work, to select it, to view it, to agonize and rejoice when a foreign eye falls on it, and to grieve when it is removed from an exhibition while rejoicing when they have the opportunity to gift someone a photo or a book of theirs. Many young photographers trying to be humble unjustly wonder if they should hold an exhibition or if a small book would be appropriate considering they are not yet ready. An artist is never ready; otherwise, they would have to hold an exhibition and a book on the eve of their death if they knew it. They put small full stops throughout their life, small stops from the beginning showing each time the stage they have reached with the purpose to surpass it, to communicate, to improve, to take themselves seriously and for us, their family, others also to take them seriously. The only mistake would be, unfortunately something we often see, the ambition rather vanity to take the upper hand and then the exhibition or the book to escape the right dimensions and the right environment they should be found in according to the progress, the age of the photographer and so we do not see retrospective exhibitions at 30 years, we do not see overly ambitious exhibitions in disproportionately highlighted places, we do not see openings with tremendous projection, in other words, the photographer must respect the measure. If they do this, I am in favor of every exhibition and every edition which of course will be moderate, rarely are they great but which are very useful both for the photographer and for photography and for the education of the photographic public without which we would not have photography.