I’d like to slap people who advise you to find your niche.

Seriously, who do they think they are?

Niche means a place or position suitable for a person or thing. I’m pretty sure that means wherever the fuck you are (with few exceptions, which I’ll leave out for the sake of brevity). There. Problem solved. Niche acquired.

Sarcasm aside, I truly do not understand the emphasis on finding one’s niche. It’s as though there is only one right place for someone and one right thing for that someone to do. And only this right thing should be done. Nothing else. Boring.

Finding a niche for creative pursuits is even more annoying. The gurus want you to step up and SELL, as though that’s a goal more noble than just enjoying your work. To find your niche, so they say, you have to find what you do better than everyone else. Or better, what you do that no one else is doing. (Please note, the gurus of which I speak do very little for you as a student except lighten your wallet.)

By this wisdom, I should have stopped writing when I got into photography. I really should have stopped writing when it became obvious that I’m a better photographer than writer, if you judge by sales.

Even worse, if I were to confine myself to a niche, I would stick to photos that SELL. Like this one, which has sold repeatedly, that I don’t even particularly like:

And I wouldn’t take any more shots like this one, my current favorite, because it hasn’t sold at all:

And since I’m taking advice from a bad guru, I shouldn’t be writing anything.

Luckily, this only applies if I care about anyone’s approval, which I don’t. The only approval I need is my own. Is that my niche?

And here’s a photo of Angel Kitty because cat photos make everything better.