Good day, Steemit…and it is a good day! I’ve been waiting to make a big announcement but wanted to wait for my 1,000 followers milestone, which was reached this afternoon! Thank you, friends! This last 10 months has been life changing. Steemit has given me a platform to share my work, an audience that can reward it, and ushered in a creative renaissance for my art. Previously, my following has amassed in the tens of thousands on Instagram and Facebook. I love and value those folks. They’ve been with me from the beginning, so I don’t want to turn my back on them now that I’ve found a site that deserves my time…I want to bring them here! Going forward, towards 2,000 followers and beyond, that is my goal. I’ll do whatever I can to port my Facebook and Instagram fanbase to Steemit. So many of my followers there are artists, photographers and models themselves. I want to see the same change Steemit brought to my life in theirs.
A quick word on my art, in relation to Steemit. In previous posts, I’ve written about how deep down in my soul, I still want to be doing comic book illustration. When I look to my future and see myself as an old man, I still see myself drawing and writing comics and graphic novels. Throughout 2015, I was burned out and jaded with photography. I was going to try and make the transition to comics and launched a massive campaign fueled by Patreon. I did everything right, but it didn’t work. After six months, I conceded that I wasn’t going to be able to make a living doing comics and began shooting again full time. Fortunately, the break and a new network of artists revived my love for photography; it wasn’t near as painful as the toxic circle I was working with before.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been seeing something remarkable happen. My illustration and comics posts here on Steemit are doing as well, if not better than my photography posts. The art community is thriving and it shows up in rewards. The last drawing I did for my Steemit inspired comic, “Steemit inspired "Cryptopia" comic; the Graves campaign for top witness sketch!" was the highest rewarded post I’ve made since my introduction post last August. It’s more than the page rate for a professional comic book artist! The news I have to make is photography-centric, so I want trail off to far in to comics, but it does open the very real possibility that I may, one day, be able to make a living here doing the one thing that has been a dream job my entire life.
So, here’s the announcement! After years of deliberation and obstacles, I’m doing my first photography book! I’ve been talking with Bob and Kelly of Working Class Publishing and as of this month, I signed the contract to bring “Dark Pinup” to print! This is a huge, huge career milestone for me! I’ve wanted to do a book for years but approaching the printing myself deterred me every time. While at a book signing in Las Vegas for my friend Shannon Brooke’s second book, “VROOOM!”, through WCP, Bob approached me and said “You’re Lars, right? We’d love to talk to you about doing a book with us!”. As it turned out, he and Kelly live in Wisconsin and earlier this month, they both met me at The Triple Rock in Minneapolis. We discussed a theme and the terms and just before hitting my one thousandth follower here on Steemit, I signed the contract!
It’s extremely humbling to be offered this partnership and I’m grateful for their faith in me as an artist, and my ability to sell books. Shannon Brooke has done two incredible coffee table books through Working Class Publishing, and with their success, photographers and models in the pinup scene have been beating down their door with proposals. Although the road I took was longer, and much harder, learning to shoot with only available light has strengthened my style and esthetic. There’s no “shortcut” to do what I do. It’s a unique way of seeing the world, subject and surroundings refined after 15 years of creating photos under minimal light.
The release of “Dark Pinup” will be next Spring at a book singing event during Viva Las Vegas. I’ve attended two of these events for my friend Shannon’s books with Working Class Publishing and they are overwhelming! Hard to even wrap my head around what it’s going to be like for me. Part of the terms of agreement, however, is that a portion of the books are mine to sell as I choose. With that in mind, I’ll setting up a cart to accept STEEM payments and listing them in the @steemshop.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for helping me reach this Steemit milestone and supporting me as I approached a massive career milestone. This is the most excited I’ve been about the future. Steemit has brought so many possibilities to my life and my work. I have no idea where we’ll be as a community in a year or two, but I’m endlessly grateful to be here, leaving my mark on the blockchain while Steemit is still in beta. Love you, all! Follow my blog @kommienezuspadt. 1,000 Steemians can’t be wrong!