... The Antonym of Amateur

[farlymac]

If photography is your profession, your means of making a living, then you are a professional. You shoot events, sports, weddings, corporate, architectural, fashion and so on in the hope of getting paid enough to keep doing what you do. It sucks getting stiffed by a client, really bad.

If you do photography just for the sheer joy of it, then you are an amateur. Doesn't matter if someone pays you every so often for a print or two, or to shoot some obscure event, you're still not a professional.

There are of course various levels of amateur, from rank-to-serious. I aspire to the high end of the scale, but find myself slipping at times.

If you do photography with the sole intention of selling prints as your main source of income, then you are an artist. Likely starving most of the time.


In my last line of work, before I was put on disability, the company I worked for at times considered us only employees, numbers of which could be manipulated to satisfy the needs of the pocketbooks of stockholders.

But if you screwed up, they would come out with the "You're a professional, why did you do that?". So we made sure to throw that back in their faces when it came time for contract talks.

So being a professional isn't some pie-in-the-sky sort of job to have all the time. There are a lot of pressures that come with the territory, performing at a high level all the time, with constant attacks on your self esteem. I tried it once in photography. Had my own little studio and all, but couldn't make a go of it as I was woefully underfunded going in, and working a full time job at the same time (my real profession). My hat is off to the person who can make a good living at this, and isn't bothered by us amateurs dipping our toes in the pool every so often.

PF

 

[charjohncarter]

'Professional' does have slightly negative connotation is my neighborhood. And not just sports figures, more like shysters.

 

[sanmich]

In French "amateur" could mean two quite different things:
- being second grade or indeed, not having a revenue from a craft: "He's an amateur photographer", or "he's an amateur" as opposed to "he's a pro" meaning a high level of craftmanship.

-The second is indeed that you really appreciate something: "He's amateur of good restaurants" or "He's an amateur of wine", usually also meaning that one's very good at what he likes, so somewhat in opposition with the first meaning

 

[Mark Schretlen]

... The Antonym of Amateur
... is paparazzi.

 

[PaulDalex]

Quite right Mark.
In my opinion misantrope is the antonym of philantrope, not of lover.
Amater or lover is in the sense of "Lady's Chatterly lover" or "latin lover"
So the antonym of lover-amateur is a men without any mistress

 

[sebastel]

a propos Paparazzo - watching "La Dolce Vita" again recently was quite a feast for my photography loving eyes.

🙂

 

[Sparrow]

... somebody told me Paparazzo was Italian for Sparrow

 

[Sparrow]

Can't speak for Yorkshire cricketers, but I will attempt to speak for the average American sentiment in 2014. Being labeled a professional means some one's society is willing to pay you for what you produce- be that an opinion, an image or the results of a surgical procedure.
This business of the pursuits of the amateur who can afford leisure being somehow more noble is really nothing more than romanticized BS.

... yes I did business with the US for many years I understand that mindset, and I'm aware of the UK and Europe's drift in that direction.

I was more just musing on the when and why it's changing ... over here we still have French farmers who will react when commercialism gets too uppity by burning down public buildings and roasting their undervalued artichokes on their embers

 

[sebastel]

... somebody told me Paparazzo was Italian for Sparrow

according to my dictionary, sparrow would be passero, or passerotto.
the same dictionary knows "Paparazzo" only as derogatory slang for press photographer. so far for the quality of this dict.

but, back to the original question - i think, that 'amateur' does not really have an antonym. to my understanding, an amateur is doing his/her "thing" out of enthusiasm. so, 'enthusiast' or 'fancier' might be a synonym for this understanding of the word.

if you consider doing something despite an aversion, a 'professional' might be an antonym. but honestly, i'd consider this a rather poor chioce of profession. from this point of view, maybe 'masochist' is closer to being an antonym to 'amateur'?

anyway, concerning photography, neither being a 'pro' nor an 'enthusiast' will guarantee a certain quality level of the output.
even the word 'quality' is not without pitfalls. look at the discussions on frank's 'the americans'. considered great by some, it does not "ring a bell" for others. but, isn't the same true for all photography? i can't remember one oevre that would unanimously be considered "great".

endless discussion ...

 

[mfogiel]

When I meet someone who claims to be a professional photographer, I sort of feel a sense of compassion...

 

[charjohncarter]

Can't speak for Yorkshire cricketers, but I will attempt to speak for the average American sentiment in 2014. Being labeled a professional means some one's society is willing to pay you for what you produce- be that an opinion, an image or the results of a surgical procedure.
This business of the pursuits of the amateur who can afford leisure being somehow more noble is really nothing more than romanticized BS.

My previous post may have been a little rough on the use of professional. I think it would be better to say that some that say they are a profession or uses profession as a adjective: as in I'm a profession XXXXX, are perceived by public as having a negative image.

 

[pete hogan]

You'd better have your building wired by a professional.

 

[charjohncarter]

You'd better have your building wired by a professional.

No, just a journeyman electrician. Which I have recently used.

 

[pete hogan]

No, just a journeyman electrician. Which I have recently used.

That's a professional. Educated, trained, licensed, and experienced.

 

[farlymac]

I've known some "journeymen". We call them "Fly By Nighters" around here. They do a crummy job in the daylight, then skip town at night.

PF

 

[Scrambler]

That's a professional. Educated, trained, licensed, and experienced.

This comes up every few years. Different flavours of English define this differently. Is some places, an electrician is a tradesman not a professional. Tradesmanlike is a compliment, but a subdued one. 🙂 Journeyman is the stage between apprentice and master.

The distinction between a profession and a trade was broadly along the lines of knowledge or skill as the core.

The British tradition has been for Surgeons to revert to Mr or Ms on qualification in the trade, renouncing the title Dr which implies being a professional. To a Surgeon from this tradition, "professional" is not a compliment.

 

[pete hogan]

This comes up every few years. Different flavours of English define this differently. Is some places, an electrician is a tradesman not a professional. Tradesmanlike is a compliment, but a subdued one. 🙂 Journeyman is the stage between apprentice and master.

The distinction between a profession and a trade was broadly along the lines of knowledge or skill as the core.

The British tradition has been for Surgeons to revert to Mr or Ms on qualification in the trade, renouncing the title Dr which implies being a professional. To a Surgeon from this tradition, "professional" is not a compliment.

Perhaps a term to agree on, world-wide, would then be "non-amateur" since tension seems to attach to "professional" in some regions. Very talented electricians at one end of the scale, as in any work. I've known and respected them.

RFf being international labors with such categories in this and other threads. That may increase understanding a little.

 

[charjohncarter]

I guess what I'm saying (and maybe Scramber too) is 'professional' is an easily used term and misused term (and in many cases redundant: i.e. tautology). Just like when they tried to pin 'genius' on Ray Charles (1961). He said no, he was not a genius. But in the end it is all semantics, and language is always evolving. So professional in England may be very different from the USA or Australia, etc. It is just overused in my town: I mean, what does a professional city council member mean? Or a professional golf links pro (I guess maybe he is just paid).

So, in my view a professional photographer (now) is just paid, not necessarily with any qualification.

 

[nongfuspring]

The label professional is desirable because many of us are living in increasingly capitalist countries where the main criteria for judging a person's worth as a cultural producer (such as a photographer) is through their market value.

 

[Pherdinand]

Even more. According to camera makers' marketing department, the antonym of "professional" is not even "amateur" but "consumer".
Which scares me a bit.
I don't like to consume cameras.

But i suppose the marketing dept thinks, amateur would be too degrading.