Why we do things like this...

I was reading the New York Times just now, and apparently they discovered an interview of W. Eugene Smith from about 1956.  Smith was without a doubt one of the best documentary photographers ever and was known to be rude, stubborn, dedicated, and insistent upon his vision.  He was talking about his Pittsburg project where he spent almost three years photographing the city, but because he produced so many photos, over 2000 negatives and more than 200 prints, it was too large and vast to publish.  At that time, literally only a handful saw this body of work by one of the greatest photographers.   The interviewer was Phillippe Halsman, himself no slouch, and it ended with this sequence:

Q.  What if nobody sees it? Besides a few friends?

A.

Answer this and you will see how artists have acted throughout the bloody ages. The goal is the work itself.