What about the professional photography or creative tribe? Is there such a thing?
Do professionals come together into active and committed groups around the status quo?

It seems like the real leaders in our professional communities are the ones closer to the edges and those creating change in that particular culture. The center might be large, but its not connected.

When we’re trying to build or join a tribe, we want to play it safe and that’s the best way to fail.
Additionally, we dread doing work that matters because we  fear that we will be judged by others as “different”. The tribe will declare us “weird” or “queer” or “crazy”. The tribe will reject us.

Steven Pressfield, in his “Turning Pro” book, writes:

Here’s the truth: The tribe doesn’t give a shit. There is no tribe.

That gang or posse that we imagine is sustaining us by the bonds we share is in fact a conglomeration of individuals who are just as fucked up as we are and just as terrified. Each individual is so caught up in his own bullshit that he doesn’t have two seconds to worry about yours or mine, or to reject or diminish us because of it.

When we truly understand that the tribe doesn’t give a damn, we’re free. There is no tribe, and there never was. Our lives are entirely up to us.

Weird thoughts and fresh combinations of existing ideas, delivered in an exciting way that captures the attention of the minority – that’s the path that works.

George Kroustallis // Minorstep