October 23, 2015

Professional or Amateur?

Are you a professional or an amateur? And what exactly do those titles imply?

For years I have heard people proudly call themselves a professional or apologetically confess that they were “only an amateur.”

In modern times “professional” has come to imply high quality and of course an “amateur” does amateurish work. No wonder everyone is embarrassed to be an amateur and wants to be a professional.

I’m afraid we’ve lost sight of what the word amateur really means: it originates from the French and Latin and means “lover of.”  The word refers to someone who does something because they love to do it, they are not formally trained and they do not earn their living from it.

I have always referred to myself as an amateur because I am self taught, I chose not to earn a living from my art and because most importantly I create because I love to. And also there is a part of me that refuses to play the name game, trying to impress others with a title that does not fit.

This week I tried an experiment: I’ve been shooting in Nova Scotia where I have been asked many times if I were a professional (I really think it’s the tripod). I normally answer “no” to this question but had an idea after reading last weeks comments and thought I’d try something different.  So this week I answered instead: “I’m a fine art photographer.”

It’s a technique that I’ve seen employed before: give an answer, but not to the question that’s been asked.

It was interesting how it worked, I could see in people’s faces that they weren’t quite sure if I had answered the question and they were certainly not sure what a fine art photographer was (I don’t blame them!). But it then led to a discussion about what I did.

I liked how this answer worked, only one person saw through my misdirection and asked again: “so are you a professional?”

Does it matter what we’re called? Unfortunately to some people it does.  

It’s a shame that we are sometimes are judged by our titles, instead of by our work.

Because ultimately the image is the only thing that matters. We can hide behind a title, but our images cannot!

Cole

 

 

6 thoughts on “Professional or Amateur?

  1. Well said for a subject that, like many, can not really be properly described with words. We depend on the little cubby holes that words and ideas create and art can not be captured with words or thoughts. Though you can capture thoughts with art. All that I wish to see from any artist, including myself, is passion for the art.

  2. I recently had a nice lady strike up a conversation with me when I was shooting. We talked about the fall foliage and then she asked if I were a professional. I replied that it’s a hobby for me. I guess that didn’t satisfy her curiosity because she then asked ‘what do you DO with the pictures?’. Her husband jumped in and gave pretty much the perfect answer. He said, “She enjoys them!”.

  3. People always, for some odd reason, think I’m a photojournalist with some big newspaper or magazine like Nat Geo. I’m rarely asked if I’m a professional photographer, but rather, “Who are you with?” ALL. THE. TIME. I think it’s funny, so I use it. I like being vague and then in order to get them to let me shoot them I might suggest that they could find themselves on “the cover”. I love photographing people, so I use my aura to get the image 😉

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