Mind Streaming

Friday, August 22, 2003

Today I submitted the following draft contribution to the Amateur Photograpaher magazine, a remarkable national weekly magazine I have subscribed to for over thirty years. The following was written to a very tight brief destined, I hope for the "Backchat" column where photgraphers are invited to express an opinion within 600 words. Naturally a writer like me has to work hard to achieve such economy of words, but the discipline of writing to a brief is very valuable experince , regardles of whether it is published or not.



Is the distinction between amateur and professional photographers really valid anymore?



Over some thirty years, weekly, I've invited complete strangers into my life ; both amateurs and experts, and been variously informed, astonished, and inspired by them. Both lay and expert contributors set standards that keep me wanting to improve and I think readers would readily agree the line between amateurs and the professionals, here, is so often a fine one.

I've built an extraordinary archive of images taken by so-called 'amateur' photographers who generously shared and explained their work ,along side often timely in-house expert practical advice, and new product evaluations. Simultaneously, my own more modest photograph collection grew and grew.

On reflection, it seems a record of my own embarrassingly slow development and includes so many fine examples of every basic error a photographer could make. Previous efforts were completely consistent with the narrowest definition of the word 'amateur ; someone who dabbles and isn't very good.

Very recently, I looked back on my own history trying to define what really separates the amateurs from the 'pros'. Anyone passionate about photography would concede immediately that Amateur Photographer Magazine is a catalogue of evidence that challenges, consistently, the notion that quality in photography is the exclusive domain of professionals.


We've probably all been, at some point, envious of the lavish equipment that professionals have. So is it their equipment that distinguishes them ? I've drooled, over reviews of the Haselblads, Liecas and Nikons and suppliers lists of cameras I simply could never afford. I owned first, a Zenith B, then a Chinon ( which I allowed, accidentally, to bake to death on a Turkish beach, learning the hard way about camera insurance.) After a further fifteen years with my dependable Pentax K1000 I gradually got a higher percentage of acceptable shots. Most recently, I use two digital cameras; a modest Fuji 2800 zoom and now a Nikon D100 .

Even though the Nikon D100 is an exceptional camera, it isn't the optical tools or medium you use but previous experience, passion and effort guiding the eye that you put next to the viewfinder and the finger that presses the shutter at the right moment that really count. It is mere coincidence that I can at last take good pictures, by design rather than happy accident, on a par with the high standards fellow 'amateurs' have set for me.

I conclude that the label 'professional' only works describing people whose main livelihood depends on taking consistently good photographs whatever the brief. (Even then, the end product might only be of interest to the client.)


With the recent explosion in the number of camera owners, many are content just to record family events. Now and again, everyone will surprise themselves with shots that stand out from the rest, but equally, more and more people are becoming very competent photographers. I actually think that the words amateur and professional aren't helpful anymore. It would be better to ask what it is that gives a person the right to call themselves a photographer ?

In my family and at work, I'm the one who doesn't go anywhere without a camera . I get the "You're the photographer, you take it ", directive, and happily accept with increasing confidence. Everyone is a photographer but a lot of people can't imagine themselves as a credible one. A photographer, in my view , is someone one driven to express themselves and communicate with others through images. They'll make a conscious effort to improve techniques and skills and keep on learning from mistakes and others. They'll take far more pictures than most of a wide range of things and , I think, essentially, will produce work of broader interest beyond their immediate peers. A photographer is one whose work is good enough to share and whose photographs can inspire others.

To visit th magazine's on-line version click on the following hyperlink
Amateur Photographer On-Line



johncoxon 12:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
...