>>4472526>>4472538NTA, I've been here for over a decade and this is the first time I'm hearing about this "/p/ darling" guy.
A quick skim through wikipedia shows he is one of millions of streetfags that went to Asia to snap some dark and empty streets there.
>age 69–70And he did it back when simply getting a decently exposed night shot outside was considered the very peak of skill, and intentionally slowing shutter speed to represent movement was considered high art.
Guess this explains how he's got his breakthrough, long before internet or smartphones, when techniques like the aforementioned shutter speed manipulation would be taught in art schools or passed down from photographers to their proteges.
Hell, even just travelling to such remote locations was considered something special, exclusive to the upper echelons of middle class and higher.
And I guess this explains why even now, many decades later, we have millions of retards everywhere trying to replicate this "streetshitting in some faraway exotic land" road to success, not realizing how everything has changed since dinosaurs like this Girard took it. And even more importantly, not realizing that the actual road to success (even back then) was through networking.
To OP.
How do you get popular with critics without nepotism/mountain of shekels?
Get a list of local community art centres, galleries (usually associated with colleges) and start networking there. Make stuff old professors and curators like to get good boy points. Become friends with young aspiring "art people" who will either replace said curators a couple of decades in, or will become artists like yourself (so you can form a circlejerk with them).
Work your way up from local to city and then national level.
Bonus points for acquiring nepotism through marriage to some critic's daughter.
How do you get popular in general?
Instagram. Botting, ads, paid promotions by influencers.
Duh.