The Timely Element

Hi fam,

You can make timeless work.

But if it has nothing urgent to say about THIS moment?

Nobody's funding it. Nobody's publishing it. Nobody's paying attention. It's also pretty impossible to anchor down, to ground, to link to a moment in time. It's basically impossible to pitch—ok ok, really hard perhaps, not impossible.

This is the Timely element—and it's the piece photographers who love "art for art's sake" want to skip.

Big mistake.

Timely doesn't mean shallow.

It means your work is in conversation with what's actually happening in the world right now.

It means you're not making work in a vacuum. You're making work that responds, that speaks back, that offers something we collectively need. You are a mirror of our times. How are you responding to what's happening now? This year, this generation?

Your role as an artist is to reflect on the above. Like James Baldwin said:

The role of the artist is to make you see what you don't see.

Think about it:

Why did Nan Goldin's work about the opioid crisis land so hard? Because it was TIMELY—arriving exactly when we needed to see the human cost of pharmaceutical greed.

Why did Tyler Mitchell photographing Beyoncé for Vogue matter? Because in that specific cultural moment, who gets to be behind the camera for those images carried weight.

These weren't just "good" projects. They were necessary, mirroring projects. At that time. In that context.

The Timely element answers:

What's happening right now that makes this work urgent? What conversation is the culture having that your project enters? Why does this need to exist NOW and not five years ago or five years from now?

This is what funders are really asking when they read applications:

"Why are we funding this project this year?"

Because if your project could have been made 20 years ago and would be the same project 20 years from now... it's probably not getting funded.

Not because it's not good. But because it's not necessary. Not right now. I've seen countless projects not being funded or published because they weren't speaking to an urgent reality. Not about the times.

But here's where most photographers get it wrong:

They think "timely" means "trendy."

They try to make work "about AI" or "about social media" or "about whatever's in the news cycle."

That's not timely. That's reactive. And it ages like milk.

Real timeliness sounds like:

"I'm exploring masculinity NOW because we're in a cultural moment of renegotiating what that means"

"I'm photographing climate refugees NOW because displacement is accelerating and we need to see it"

"I'm documenting this subculture NOW before it's absorbed and commodified"

The sweet spot:

When your personal obsession (Personal) Connects to universal human themes (Universal) Built on questions that endure (Timeless) Arrives at the exact cultural moment when we need it (Timely)

That's when your project becomes undeniable. ❤️

That's when grants get approved. Exhibitions happen. Publications say yes. Opportunities find you.

So ask yourself:

What's shifting in the culture right now? What conversation is happening that my work could deepen or complicate? What does this moment need that I'm positioned to give?

Your project doesn't need to be "about" current events.

But it does need to matter NOW.

You've got all four elements.

Now the question is: How do you actually BUILD a project that holds Personal, Universal, Timeless, and Timely all at once?

That's exactly what we're doing in the free workshop: Get Hired for Work You Love (Develop a Killing Personal Project).

I'm walking you through the exact framework I use with photographers who go on to win grants, get published, and build careers around their personal work.

Spaces are limited because I keep these intimate and interactive.

February 26 at 6pm CET.

See you there.

Lola