I want to be a photographer – or maybe an artist. - small rant

[The_Traveler]

Every group of photographers I know seems divided by their intent into two groups, whether they own up to it or not. One group is those who aspire to be craftsmen (or craftswomen) They want to control their equipment and refine their technique so they can capture anything in front of their lens in the way they want to capture it.

It is rare that someone who works in a craft-based community, like photography, will declare themselves to be an 'artist', perhaps because that seems to be putting themselves above their fellows, somehow pretentious or presumptuous or thinking what their friends are doing isn't good enough. Interestingly, many people will actually try to denigrate the role of 'artist', perhaps in some sort of compensatory maneuver to explain their own choice of 'career'.

There is also the implication is that artists don't conform to the high standards of execution of the craft that photographers as craftsman do. Yet it is a common trope that, when a craftsman exceeds the usual standards, producing work that is new and creative, he or she is designated by his/her admirers as an 'artist' eg “my hairdresser is an artist.”

Generalizing, as I see it, a craftsman has, or intends to have, the skill to faithfully reproduce someone else's artistic vision and there is no connotation of any particular individual creativity beyond a certain polishing of techniques. An artist is really be defined by the intent to produce something that reflects his or her artistic sensibilities, pushing out from standard ways to find something new – and there is no connotation of skill.

One can be a poor craftsman with no skills and no talent to attain or polish them.
One can be a poor artist, while still having great skills, but having no or poor creative instincts. . A mediocre or bad artist, who knows that he is exactly that, is really someone to be pitied.

Photography is rather unique amongst the creative arts in that effort is supported by a huge and intricate technology.

Smart cameras can, as long as the operator doesn't interfere too much, produce decent results under common conditions; after all the creating engineers know how to plan for common conditions. Thus the ordinary run of standard product has been raised to a level such that the line between ordinary, routine crap produced by a smart camera and actual good stuff produced by a skilled photographer is not easily discernible by an unknowing viewer.

So, while most artistic endeavors clearly require some skill development in order to exercise one's creative spark, photography seems to be more friendly and encouraging. So, it is easy to have an idea that someone can use a camera and be 'creative'; self-proclamation is easy to say and rarely denied to anyone's face.

I come across a good number of these 'artists.'
They, who don't know any better, can take a camera, make simple settings, press the shutter button and get a reasonably sharp, reasonably well-exposed result. Again, not knowing any better, they can assume they have the vehicle to transport their creative ideas to fruition and declare themselves an “artist.”

But, when the conditions or scene get out of that narrow bounds that the engineers have planned for, their pictures fall apart. With little experience or knowledge they can't recognize the source of defects in the image and sometimes are even blind to their presence. Typically, in the reverse of the 'craftsman' snobbery, they also seem to believe that the standards of the craft, the skills, the experience are unneeded in comparison to the strength of their artistic vision.

And perhaps that gets to the crux of it; their behavior, the obviousness of craft or the denial of it, is as damn insulting to me as someone here, having just bought a camera, out looking for work as a wedding photographer.

 

[Gavjenks]

A craftsman is occasionally not an artist, if and when they are just following procedures, like "here's a set of plans to make this chair, now go buy the wood and do it." The person who does is clearly a craftsman, but is not making any artistic decisions.


Anybody who is making design decisions, however, is an artist IMO. Including the dude who came up with the original plans for that chair. And every photographer pretty much, outside of the most banal, procedural technical work like photographing manuscripts. Or perhaps school photos always on the exact same bleachers with the same lights etc.


I would avoid using the term on myself very often for the simple and not terribly interesting reason you pointed out in the OP: it comes across as arrogant. But I still think I am one if you ask. I also think you are and pretty much all the rest of us.


As you say, some are bad artists, some are good. But I don't see it as very controversial that we are all artists.

 

[71M]

Very interesting; not sure I agree with all you wrote, going to chew on it for a minute.

 

[robbins.photo]

Lew,

I read through the mini-rant here and I guess my thought is this, anyone that thinks they can pick up a camera and shoot a complex event like a wedding and do so competently is obviously ignorant.

But I would submit that being insulted by that and getting angry with them for it serves no more purpose than being angry at a tornado for destroying your house.

If you get angry with ignorant people you'll wind up being angry all the time, because face it, the whole world is just chock full of them.

So if truly is about the art then let it be about the art. Just my two cents worth of course.

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

 

[ratssass]

NEWSFLASH............Lew is angry all the time,and that ok.That's one of the many things you can learn from a man like Lew.

 

[The_Traveler]

NEWSFLASH............Lew is angry all the time,and that ok.

Not true.

Between 3:00 AM and 7:26 AM, I am totally cooled out.

 

[runnah]

I guess I am missing the gist of the argument.

Is Lew angry because people don't identify themselves as artists or because craftsmen call themselves artists?

Reading comprehension is not my strongest suit.

 

[71M]

And perhaps that gets to the crux of it; their behavior, the obviousness of craft or the denial of it, is as damn insulting to me as someone here, having just bought a camera, out looking for work as a wedding photographer.

Many moons ago, Jimi Hendrix was on playing on the radio; a conservative, a self-appointed, custodian of good taste type guy said: "gee, this is awful, this isn't music! this guy can't play!", (he actually said that, "can't play!"). It went against everything he considered the 'craft' of making conventional sweet, melodic pop. The piece of music was Jimi's rendition of Star-Spangled Banner.

I recognize the analogy can be diminished with more insight into how Hendrix knew how to play 'normally' - if he ever wanted to - or similarly how an artist like Picasso could 'draw normally' - if he wanted to, but I see it as comparable that if an artist' wants to use blur, light-leaks, rule breaking attitude to photography etc, that's kind of like Jimi's Star Spangled Banner in a different form. (The non-conformist approach to sound creation with an electric guitar that broke all known rules.)

Punk is maybe a better example: as we know, Punk was an attitude and a lack of aptitude musically to start with - what emerged as a DIY counter-movement to very 'craft conscious' music like the Prog Rock and soppy Pop of the early 70s, became a signature sound by the 80s. The seeds of Punk eventually created good craft and good art too. So I 'd say that photographers as artists, as craftsmen, as dilettante either or, is useful and necessary to evolve all of it. It's all good.

 

[AlanO]

I guess I am missing the gist of the argument.

Is Lew angry because people don't identify themselves as artists or because craftsmen call themselves artists?

Reading comprehension is not my strongest suit.

I think Lew's point is the best photographers are both artists and craftsmen. Both qualities are equally as important in creating extraordinay works. I think the rant is frustration over photographers not recognizing this fact.

 

[71M]

I guess I am missing the gist of the argument.

Is Lew angry because people don't identify themselves as artists or because craftsmen call themselves artists?

Reading comprehension is not my strongest suit.

I think the rant is frustration over photograpers not recognizing this fact.

It does seem, (to me), to be more in one direction than in the other. It may be just coincidental that none of the photographers I really admire, have spoken or written about the importance of craft or pronounce themselves artists, that I've seen. They just make pictures that communicate.

 

[runnah]

I think Lew's point is the best photographers are both artists and craftsmen. Both qualities are equally as important in creating extraordinay works. I think the rant is frustration over photograpers not recognizing this fact.

Oh I figured that was an obvious fact. Carry on.

 

[The_Traveler]

What really set this off is my coming across a number of people proclaiming themselves as artists and being accepted as such in the local 'arts' community and yet they have no skills and are seemingly unaware that skills are required. The local galleries show these people and are seemingly themselves unaware of how truly awful they are.

I was in a show with two other photographers and they were terrible - it was a bad experience.
I have a show later this year and I'm at the point where I am going to investigate the other photographer and decide whether or not to withdraw.

 

[71M]

What really set this off is my coming across a number of people proclaiming themselves as artists and being accepted as such in the local 'arts' community and yet they have no skills and are seemingly unaware that skills are required. The local galleries show these people and are seemingly themselves unaware of how truly awful they are.

I was in a show with two other photographers and they were terrible - it was a bad experience.
I have a show later this year and I'm at the point where I am going to investigate the other photographer and decide whether or not to withdraw.

What are these artists doing? Taking photos?

 

[71M]

Is the show curated in a way that doesn't differentiate between your objectives and theirs?

 

[kathyt]

This **** is way to deep for me, but I can say from my own experience, that I know how to operate my camera, I know what my clients want/expect from me, and I can generally give them that, because I have put in the time and effort to learn how to do so. I do not consider myself an artist. I am very practical. I am a nurse. We are generally very black and white. They either have a pulse or don't. Everybody on this forum is going to have their own logic behind why and how they do things. I really don't care how Suzie-Shoots-Alot does things, because she doesn't care for my clients. I am responsible for my actions, goals, and ultimately my fate in this industry. I get out of it what I put into it. Same goes for everyone else.