So I suppose one could say this is the update many of you have been waiting for. An update where things have shifted, rocks have been kicked over and the fat lady appears to be going for the crescendo.
I won’t bore you with apologies as to why things have been quiet on my front, I have explained this numerous times before, besides reading this you’re likely to figure out the reason on your own anyhow.
So let’s get into the nitty gritty.
I lost my job.
My day..job that is. I did customer service for online casinos for close to three years now, but due to some laws recently passed in the United States and France we lost 80% of all clients and so the company threw in the towel.
Now for those of you who know my story, I’m sure you can imagine that this is great reason for concern as I have my share of responsibilities and the things I hold dear in life constantly hang by a very thin thread.
For those who don’t..well you can imagine that it sucks to say the very least, to lose your job.
To make matters worse, my camera was not working as it should and it had been for a while now. With no money to replace, I had been in a rut.
I had known for a little bit now that the office might be closing down as things have been stirring for a while now and many of us saw dark clouds on the horizon in there.
So I’ve been banging my head against a wall for a while now due to the fact that I was in between a rock and a hard place. With my job hanging by the ever present, ever-fucked thread and my equipment dying on me, I felt backed into a corner.
Realizing that change had to come in the form of a unicorn or in the form of a raging bull frightened me. But one thing was certain; Change had to come.
Now as many of you may or may not know I have been wanting to replace my equipment for a while now, replace them and add a little extra and take my work to the level where I desperately feel it should be. This has been something I have wanted desperately. I strongly feel that the only thing that has always kept me behind the herd was my financial situation. Everyone else was carrying bigger guns due to deeper pockets. It was that one factor that kept me rubbing shoulders with many others, and what kept me from feeding them stir fried dust with a side of rocks and mud.
Backed into the corner, desperate, I did what any responsible man would;
I took out a loan.
Let’s just say I’ll be spending a fair amount of time returning it.
But let’s also say that that ‘wall’ that separated the men from the boys has now crumbled.
I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say it’s a brave new world for Robert Volkerts Photography. More will be revealed in due time.
Now that we have covered the photography in my life, let’s get back to my day job.
Shortly after I lost my job, which was last week Wednesday to be precise, I received a rather interesting job offer. One that was quite unexpected.
See..there’s this really impressive magazine looming over the horizon. A magazine based here on the island and has a definite edge over anything out there.
This magazine is named Curacao Journal.
I am now officially its Advertisement Sales Manager and Photographer.
Which means I will be visiting a whole many businesses and establishments on the island to offer them ad space in this new magazine I’m raving about.
And I will also be the photographer for this magazine, so for those of you who like my work you may now look forward to checking it out on a regular basis. And I can promise you it will be refreshing.
Now it’s a little soon to give away too much but I can say that this will be a lifestyle magazine and that we have assembled a very exciting mix of young talents to contribute to it.
We have a demo website which has been out for a year, along with a demo magazine, which you can find in PDF format on the website. But, a year is a long time and as with most things that have the opportunity to sit and simmer, they change, they evolve.
The magazine has gone through some significant changes and some very exciting ones if I do say so myself. So whatever you see on that site, take it at face value as the magazine has undergone changes, but as you can see there, even what’s there already looks very nice.
Also as I’m the Ad Sales Manager and the Photographer, I will be able to have a very informed discussion with these business owners about Ad ideas and be completely free of the burden of having subtle and sensitive creative information get lost in translation. No middle man, no hassle. I will also of course be available to shoot ads for any of these businesses.
This coupled with my new equipment, well..I think it’s safe to say we have a recipe for something sweet on our hands.
The magazine is slated to launch in January of 2012 but I start work tomorrow.
If you’re a business owner, expect to see me real soon and prepare to be intrigued.
So without giving too much away too soon, let me say that the future is wide open and I dare say holds a fist full of promise for Robert Volkerts Photography.
