100 years ago food was life, nowadays life is money.
"The blacker the berry the sweater the juice" from Kendrick Lamar's album "To Pimp a Butterfly" stands as a statement for hope, as the whole album actually.
Over my lifetime money wasn't so important because my parents was managing food, house, bills and shit. I wasn't looking for big money so my carreer took a path of loyalty and clean relationships with people I was working with (most of them are musicians, artists and hardworkers).
Corporate business is offering nowadays to youngsters the opportunity to deal quick, easy and big money in exchange of little work, if you look at artists. On the other side corporate business is also employing people to work hard like 8 to 16 hours/day and not paying them at all (just look at fast fashion big businesses).
From the age of 16 that I was starting my carreer as a photographer most of the times I refused to work with them. Nowadays, at 28 yo, I had all the money to live a proper life on modern cities, as Turin, Barcelona or Copenhaghen. But I be always strugglin' with money.
Sometimes I'm trying to exchange pictures for food, reels for meals, work for goods and work for work.
Last time I had breakfast in Bacau (Romania) with a coffee from a young mama and a brioche with nuts from Luca. They didn't want the pictures but i was so excited that I did plenty. To be honest this was the first time trying to exchange. You can see some frames on this videoclip i did for Pharrell and Travis Scott - Down in Atlanta
Actually exchanging work for work isn't a good idea. "Gavetta" in italian means working for free at the beginning of your carreer and expecting for big opportunities. It also means that you train yourself and work with other people at the same time.
I can say that my 10 years workaround in Italy was almost gavetta just for the fact that I was working with friends and OGs from underground culture.
From this point of my life, as a documentarist ph. and videographer I be trying to go for big money without and kind of extortion from all the entities that seems to do that, specially from the people.
