I am sorry to hear that you find difficulty in getting your latest work accepted, but I cannot see that this means that you are going backwards. For years I have found myself in the same position. Whenever I produce a new idea it seems to me that it is always instantly rejected even by reasonably progressive photographers. I think the only thing to do is to push on regardless—of course one has to spend a great deal of time thinking about what one is doing and testing one's ideas, and, as I have stated in print, it is essential that in the final analysis one should be the only judge one one's own work. If after a thorough examination you are reasonably confident that your new work is a step forward, then I am absolutely sure that you must pursue it as hard as you can, even if no one else at all likes it. In practice there always are a few people who will see the point of what you are doing; even poor old Vincent Van Gogh had Theo to support him. The other thing is, I think it is important not to deny the validity of one's earlier work however much one may feel one has out-grown it. I think that with many artists the time comes when they achieve a synthesis of all the ideas they have used in their lives, and this is when they achieve greatness. So I hope you will not go around destroying your earlier romantic photographs.
