Here is a guy, Erik Kim, who is kind of self-promoted celeb in the world of photography, a kind of David Lebovitz/Anthony Bourdain of street photography. Example of his genre:
How I Earn $200,000+a Year from Photography
By winning SEO game and posting endless pseudo philosophical essays, life/business/photography advises peppered with shitty photos all over the web the guy made a name that allows him to charge exorbitant sums for workshops on street photography. I give him due, he has a style, a panache, the right degree of weirdness and some of his observations are interesting to me. Search for Erik Kim on youtube and you’ll see a certain charm.
Here is the article in the very popular photo site that published endless Erik’s stories:
Eric Kim Proves the Value (and Fallacy) of SEO for Photographers
I guess this article is the beginning of the king’s decline. The moral of the story: SEO/promotion is important and necessary for business, but it’s not enough if your product (photos) suck. If promotion overweighs utility it becomes snake oil.
I can understand artistic appeal of street photography but my practical mind could not comprehend why would someone pay to learn useless genre where no rules is the rule.