what is the craft of photography?

[gns]

A couple of recent threads have got me thinking some about this.
There are different definitions and uses of the word, craft. The first usually refers to making something by hand. Nothing in photography is really done by hand. We sometimes talk about hand made wet prints, but what are we really doing by hand? Maybe some dodging and burning during the print exposure. That's about it.

Quite differently, we use the term to refer to less tangible things as in the writer's craft (even referring to writers as wordsmiths), his mental skill and sense in choosing and arranging just the right words. In photography, we definitely are choosing and arranging just the right elements within the frame, so I think this meaning could apply.

But beyond that, we are also involved in creating a physical object. Not directly by hand, but through a system of optics, mechanics and chemistry. There is the manipulation of physical stuff through technology and technique. Is that where the craft of photography lies? How do you see or define craft in photography? And how important is it to you?

I guess for me, a useful definition of craft would be something like, having control over one's process to obtain the look one wants. I don't think there is any given way a photo has to look, or a minimum quality level that must be met, but I think the look of the photo should be appropriate. There should be a reason it looks the way it does.

 

[JoeV]

My simplistic definition is that craft is the technical details of developing and printing film, or post-processing digital files, while art is what's being implied with the resulting images.

~Joe

 

[Keith]

For me when you take the photo you're being an artist ... for what happens afterwards you become an artisan. This applies to film or digital IMO.

 

[benlees]

Let's say you wanted to do a photographic equivalent to Rauschenberg's white paintings. You did it in two ways. The first way you used your knowledge of photography to load a camera with b&w film, overexpose like crazy so your negs are black, put them in the enlarger, develop and fix to create white prints. The second way you just took the photo paper out of the box and stuck in on the wall. It seems one way has craft and the other does not, but the results are the same and the idea behind is the same. Thinking out loud...

 

[John Bragg]

😀 The craft element for me lies in the way I handle the development of my film in order to fulfil the image I had envisioned when I pressed the shutter button. It makes my work predictable in nature, and not just a matter of luck and happenstance. My images look that way because I want them to, not by sheer luck or serendipity ......

 

[rkm]

In other areas craft implies imitation. While art implies innovation.

 

[John Bragg]

In other areas craft implies imitation. While art implies innovation.

We all learn by imitation, then branch out and go our own way eventually, just as in life !

 

[Exdsc]

Everybody has ideas but only those who know the craft of writing can put those into writing and create stories novels and poetry.

 

[Particular]

The Craft of Photography, is a vehicle that efficiently transports you to new and unusual places. It always gets there a little bit sooner than everyone else. It finds the best points of view, and takes you there right as the light is most magical. It will hover just long enough for you to get the shot before it moves you along to the next spot.

I think of it as kind of an intelligent hands free off-road segway.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

For me, the "craft" involved in photography is the part which requires the photographer to understand how to use the camera to achieve the preferred end result. This in turn, suggests an element of previsualisation of the shot - without which, it is seldom much more than a decent record of what's in front of the lens.

Therefore, IMO, craft and previsualisation need to work in harmony in order to produce "art". Sometimes of course, there will be happy accidents. However, so long as the photographer knows their objective and has the craft to deliver, there's a good chance of the end result being worth the effort. Otherwise, it's just a lot of random shooting....

 

[swoop]

Whenever I teach a technical workshop I like to mention that photography is simply knowing how to manipulate a camera to make it see the way they do and that's what I want them to walk away with.

 

[thegman]

It can be as much or as little as you like. Some will see just the composing and taking of an image as the craft, and have it processed and printed by someone else, or just put onto a computer by themselves.

Some people make their own wet plates, or process in their own coffee-based solutions, and use hand made cameras. to them, that's the craft.

Many of us are somewhere in the middle.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Ars longa, vita brevis.

Cheers,

R.

 

[kxl]

"The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it." -- Ansel Adams

Craft is the process of:

1) whatever happens within those twelve inches;

2) extracting the resulting content; and,

3) producing tangible results from the extracted content.

 

[shadowfox]

To me, darkroom printing is where the meaning of "craft" really applies in photography.

It is where you work with your hands, timing is crucial, finesse and dexterity is involved, and the result is unique. Isn't that what a craft is about?

 

[charjohncarter]

My simplistic definition is that craft is the technical details of developing and printing film, or post-processing digital files, while art is what's being implied with the resulting images.

~Joe

I totally agree, but to some extent artists have to be craftsmen/craftswomen too. Where the differences is I'm not sure.

 

[koven]

Post processing/developing

A lot of photography is all instinct....getting that feeling of when to click the shutter. Its only when you back and examine the image to process/develop is when you start thinking about what you want to present.

 

[Chris101]

Things that contribute to my definition of craft:

Computer skills
Good vision
Patience
Good impulses
Steady hands
Tool skills
Improvisation
Money, and some other stuff.
​

 

[willie_901]

When the process is complete, you always have the images you need, when you need them.