What makes you a photographer?

you take photos = photographer.

then there are different levels of photographer. if you are paid and its how you support yourself, you're a professional. if you're not paid, you're anywhere from beginner to hobbyist, to advanced.

just imo.
 
1) you like taking photos
2) you have done at least one selfie

=> you are a photographer.

A famous photographer living just a few miles from here:

koko-2.2.jpg


"Love camera" is good enough for me. That she used an OM2 is a plus :)
 
steveniphoto said:
you take photos = photographer.

then there are different levels of photographer. if you are paid and its how you support yourself, you're a professional. if you're not paid, you're anywhere from beginner to hobbyist, to advanced.

just imo.
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Is there any other rational opinion?

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Everything depends on the context of the question. If people ask you "what you do", by convention, you reply with your full-time or principal job. Thus I could at various times have replied "student" or "schoolteacher" or "accountant" (not for long, that one) or "photographer" or "writer" or "journalist" or various combinations thereof.

But some people don't want to admit to doing something boring, so they give a hobby as "what they are" instead. And others don't always understand the convention either:

"I'm a writer."

"Oh. Have you had anything published?"

But equally, I might say of my friend Marie, when she ran a café, "She's a very fine photographer." Now, she's a very fine photographer who earns a good part of her living from it (though she is also, now, a part of the wicked rentier class and rents out the café).

Cheers,

R.
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Very interesting, much truth in it!
 
There's a difference between photographers that can only be called that when they're holding a camera and the ones that can be called that when they're not holding a camera. The latter makes you a photographer I think.
 
Pastor Chris said:
I just bought a camera with an f-stop, I think that qualifies me. Where do I get my membership card? Ken Rockwell?
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Oh dear...

Didn't someone once have a theory that if the word Nazi or Hitler is entered into a discussion/argument, then basically its all over.

Also, didn't someone once say the same thing about Ken Rockwell and photography??

All in jest of course. Personally I think that Rockwell is merely a successful technician with the camera. However his work lacks appeal or that bit of mystery/soul/energy/synergy/gist or what ever you want to call it that immortalises his photos.

So, actually Rockwell is one of the last people I would hope to get a membership card from into this exclusive club of 'photographer'.
 
Tijmendal said:
There's a difference between photographers that can only be called that when they're holding a camera and the ones that can be called that when they're not holding a camera. The latter makes you a photographer I think.
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This.

Does a painter stop being a painter when he lays down his brush?

My old high school art teacher suffered a stroke six months after retiring. He was found timely in the woods near our city or would have died.
It took him the better part of two years to sufficiently recover to be able to even hold a brush again but he did not stop being a painter in that period.

Every time we spoke I could tell he was still viewing the world around him from the perspective of a painter, referring to colors, light and lines and we discussed the specifics of the processes that he used to apply when painting.

After those two years he struggled to re-invent himself, being a realist painter was in the past since he did not regain control over his muscles to work at a sufficiently precise level. He has taken to landscapes in watercolor and gouache and is again producing paintings that his surroundings appreciate, value and buy. He's participated in art shows and has had his own exhibition. He even says his stroke has brought him the necessity to re-invent himself and thus stop creating the naturally-evolving work he made for four decades and that is was a good thing in that sense.


To me a person who views the world with the intricacies of the photographic process in mind and who also is considered a photographer by his surroundings and peers, is a photographer.


I'm still hesitant to call myself a photographer, I feel that this prerogative is with others, calling me a photographer. So far I'm still only a person that views the world with photography in mind and who is called a photographer by his surroundings (this only came to be recently with some photography gigs) but I'm not sufficiently certain yet on showing my work to people I would feel honored to call my peers and have them call me a photographer.
 
Actually a question worth thinking about. Now I would never call myself a photographer and I have corrected a couple of people who have asked.
I can achieve a well framed photo with good exposure and end up with a satisfying print - mostly.But I am just a guy with an interest.
And here is the bind.
A photographer has just opened a suburban studio less than a kilometer from my house.She has put some of her work in the window of the studio_On my last walk I stopped to have a look and frankly I would be embarrassed to include 90% of the work in one of my family albums.
So, she is a photographer and I am not.
I guess `the market' will decide?
 
buzzardkid said:
This.

Does a painter stop being a painter when he lays down his brush?

My old high school art teacher suffered a stroke six months after retiring. He was found timely in the woods near our city or would have died.
It took him the better part of two years to sufficiently recover to be able to even hold a brush again but he did not stop being a painter in that period.

Every time we spoke I could tell he was still viewing the world around him from the perspective of a painter, referring to colors, light and lines and we discussed the specifics of the processes that he used to apply when painting.

After those two years he struggled to re-invent himself, being a realist painter was in the past since he did not regain control over his muscles to work at a sufficiently precise level. He has taken to landscapes in watercolor and gouache and is again producing paintings that his surroundings appreciate, value and buy. He's participated in art shows and has had his own exhibition. He even says his stroke has brought him the necessity to re-invent himself and thus stop creating the naturally-evolving work he made for four decades and that is was a good thing in that sense.


To me a person who views the world with the intricacies of the photographic process in mind and who also is considered a photographer by his surroundings and peers, is a photographer.


I'm still hesitant to call myself a photographer, I feel that this prerogative is with others, calling me a photographer. So far I'm still only a person that views the world with photography in mind and who is called a photographer by his surroundings (this only came to be recently with some photography gigs) but I'm not sufficiently certain yet on showing my work to people I would feel honored to call my peers and have them call me a photographer.
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For me, this is the most lucid explanation of the meaning of the word photographer. Also, the back story was a wonderful detail.
 
This is something I've wrestled with quite a bit, especially in recent months as I have been on a quest for authenticity. Personally in my heart I still merely consider myself a student of the art, I am hesitant to do gigs for people or even really share my work. I would one day love to be able to consider myself truly a photographer and to take pride in that. But for now I am content being a student of beauty captured in film and digital.
 
i tell people i'm a hobbyist photographer, though that adjective has acquired an unfortunate shading. "enthusiast photographer" just doesn't roll so trippingly off the tongue
 
What makes me a photographer, simple I enjoy taking photos and working to improve my skills as a photographer, before, during and after the shot. This is what makes me a photographer. For others it may be the fact that they make their living from photography and for still others it might be because they enjoy taking pictures of the flowers in their garden or even their cats.
Just because someone else motivation and goals differs from mine makes them no more or no less a photographer.
 
What makes you a photographer?
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Because I'm human!

We are social creatures and each of us has the desire to express ourselves.

Several different mediums can be used to express how each of us views the world.

I desire to make photographs of happy people. The most universal gesture we have as humans is our smile. Try it! For a day or two, every person you come come into contact, smile at each of them. Notice how many will smile back at you!

Maybe you will meet a person who will become your friend!

Smiles!
 
Someone once defined being a "proper photographer" to me as "someone with a decent and workable filing system."

Tongue in cheek it may have been but I wonder if there's some element of truth in there? If so I'm probably in the non photographer bracket :D
 
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