PHOTOGRAPHY TO ME

My thoughts on what has become of the art form of photography

I was always a creative, artistic and expressive person. I’ve always found ways of telling stories and I believe I always will. That’s what music was and now that’s what photography to me is.

Just like anything, every artform has been too commercialized. You get into it to make money and I admit, for the longest time, Music and Photography were a way for me to make money. I mean, we have to find a way to pay the bills right? I wrote songs to make money, I produced and composed music to make money, I DJ’ed to make money, and now I guess I take pictures to make money. But here’s the thing that separates someone who uses an art to make money from the true artists that let their craft do the money making. The true artists have studied their craft for years and years and refuse to believe that they already know everything. They continue to try and learn everything there is to learn about what they do. And when there is nothing left to learn? They innovate. They come up with new ways to make their craft better, they teach others their craft and they find others who share their vision.

See the thing is, these days, there are employers who look for so much in a candidate and don’t pay well enough. I’ve seen job postings looking for a Photographer/Videographer with a degree in Fine Arts who also has a degree in Graphic Design who also has a degree in Marketing and they get offered as low as $900 a month. How is that even fair? The thing is, it’s not. The advent of affordable cameras and access to photography tutorials have seen a rise in “photographers” whose main aim is to take pictures just for the sake of taking pictures. These pictures don’t tell a story. They’re just random frozen moments in time stored in your memory card. And why do employers always look for a Photographer/Videographer, just because a camera has both the photo and video mode? Although very closely related, these are two, drastically different artforms. It’s absurd!

But what can we, as a community do about it? Well that’s a good question now is it not? I believe the best thing we can do right now is to educate. Try and bring back the art in photography. Because well, I don’t know about you but that is what Photography to me is. More than just an occupation, its art.