Monday, March 25, 2019


Where to start?

After all, what does it mean to be professional?  Especially a professional photographer.  Does it depend on the amount of money we make?  The gear we use?  The publications we have worked for?  The number of images in print?  Whether or not we have a studio?  The format we work in? 

Professionalism is, in my opinion, the ability to make good photographs without relying on luck, or that special moment, or being in a location where you would have to be an utter idiot not to get good images (Monument Valley, war zones, beautiful snowfalls, etc.).

Things I have been told about being a professional which just were not true (these will give away my age):

35mm can never be sharp enough, you must shoot 2 ¼ format.
Professionals only use Nikon.  Cameras made by Canon, Minolta, Pentax et al. were second or third rate.
Kodachrome 25 was the only slide film you should shoot.
Tri X was the only black and white film you should shoot.
Real pros had motor driven cameras.
Hasselblad was the only professional medium format camera.
“You should never do it that way!”  pick a tool or technique and someone will get hysterically upset about it. 

While It is true that one of the poorly kept secrets of professional photography is that we shot a lot of frames, it was due to the fact that we didn’t have the same ability an artist had in changing small (or large) details of an image. This can go to neurotic extremes - there was one poor soul who shot 10,000 rolls of slide film for a liquor ad which is certainly carrying things a bit far.

I have done assignments, advertising (not a lot), newspaper photography, stock, exhibited, done headshots, portraits, and the unifying theme has not been the dollar amounts accrued, but the production of images which 1.  Don’t require captions to give them emotional punch.  2.  Stand on their own as images – regardless of the medium.  2. Aren’t equipment driven, formulaic imitations of other photographer’s work.  3.  Making images that aren’t stories.  While they may enhance a text, they are not reliant on the text for power, visual art is not a literary form.  4.  Whenever possible retaining all rights to my work – to prevent copyright infringement, yes, but also to deal with the concept that the person photographed has anything to say about its use, composition, getting royalties, using it for their own purposes without permission, etc. 

Let us try to recognize that a great image is a great image.

As a group, photographers seem to be among the least supportive people I’ve ever met. 

It is important to remain positive in the face of statements like
“No one does that kind of photography anymore”
“Brand x is better than whatever you are shooting with”
And pretty much everything we do or have is a target for these kinds of remarks
“So and So (insert famous photographers name) says you should…insert name here
Never crop
Always crop
“It should come straight out of the camera” – no processing (color correcting, no sharpening, no fixing skin tones et al
“I would never use – insert software brand here)

Charting a path through this is hard.  It’s too easy to fall into the better gear = better photographs trap, and the last and in my opinion the worst is basing your professionalism on your accounts receivables.

Some suggestions:

1.        Do not compare your insides with other peoples outsides.
2.       Stick with the photographers who are positive, encouraging and happy to share information.
3.       Avoid long conversations about lenses, cameras, lighting equipment.  Painters don’t sit around yammering about their brushes for hours on end.
  
A word to any one who has been at this for a while:  Be careful what you say to neophytes.  They are easily hurt and discouraged.  Negativity projected onto a new photographer says nothing about them, it can be a means to elevate one’s own opinion of oneself.

A quick anecdote:

I was at an event standing next to two photographers, one of whom was the son of a very famous photographer and worked on staff at a major NY daily newspaper.  The other one shot for a Jewish publication and was relatively well paid.
One had an early digital Canon ($14,500 was the price tag).
The other had the latest Nikon stuff motor drives and all.
I was shooting with a Nikon F made in 1965.
Says one of them to me:  what are you doing with that piece of  crap camera?”
Say I “Making great photographs”.

It isn’t the machine, it’s the mechanic.