John, I think you perhaps have a very narrow view of professional photography. I make a living from photography and love it. And I rarely have to take orders from anyone. Yes, there are certain things I have to shoot, but it is invariably left up to me how I do it. Last year I was asked to photograph oil pressed from oats. They wanted 'interesting' pictures to illustrate technical notes. I was given complete freedom to do whatever I wanted. Same when I'm photographing a child. The parents let me do whatever I want. It is down to my own creativity (not claiming any great skill here). I know a lot of amateurs who would love the chance to be asked to photograph anything and be paid for it. Whether oil, children, weddings, whatever. It's totally my choice how I do it. The only restriction is, I have to come up with something that other people enjoy - and that gives me pleasure anyway. I want my pictures to communicate with other people. My customers all find me through word of mouth and so they obviously like my way of seeing things, otherwise they would go elsewhere.
I have never claimed to be an artist, and to be honest I don't really care much for the terms amateur and professional when applied to photography. Either you have talent and can produce the goods, or you don't. The 'professional' market in the UK is awash with wannabe photographers who's work is barely competent, and many who's work is total rubbish. And there are many amateurs who's work is superb. But at least it's a free market and photographers can do what they like and call themselves what they like. I'm far from being talented, but for 15 years I've scratched a living from photography, doing it my way, and in my spare time I'm just a 'Photographer'. I'm a photographer because almost my whole life is consumed by photography (I'm married to one as well), from 7am until often 9pm. Sometimes I go for a ride on my bicycle (Rob C bait).
Oh and by the way, not sure if you are a teacher or not, but I know a lot of teachers and they are buried beneath a mountain of bureaucracy and have almost no freedom in how they teach. Everything is dictated. Many of them relish the complete freedom I have in my work. They might not be so keen on losing their salaries, pensions and paid holidays though!
I can honestly say that 80 per cent of my work is so enjoyable I would do it for free if I didn't need the money.
Jim
“I have never claimed to be an artist, and to be honest I don't really care much for the terms amateur and professional when applied to photography.
1. Either you have talent and can produce the goods, or you don't. The 'professional' market in the UK is awash with wannabe photographers who's work is barely competent, and many who's work is total rubbish. And there are many amateurs who's work is superb.
2. I'm a photographer because almost my whole life is consumed by photography (I'm married to one as well), from 7am until often 9pm. Sometimes I go for a ride on my bicycle (Rob C bait).
3. Oh and by the way, not sure if you are a teacher or not, but I know a lot of teachers and they are buried beneath a mountain of bureaucracy and have almost no freedom in how they teach. Everything is dictated. Many of them relish the complete freedom I have in my work. They might not be so keen on losing their salaries, pensions and paid holidays though!
4.I can honestly say that 80 per cent of my work is so enjoyable I would do it for free if I didn't need the money.”
Hi, Jim
Thanks for the plug, tempered with a modicum of temptation!
I’ve edited your post with numerals to make response in some sort of logical order using Microsoft Word, because I can never get down more than a sentence or so using the supplied box, and that blows my concentration away.
1. I agree 100% on that, which is why I despair at those who imagine that listening to the words of a guru will magic them into artists too. I could always make images good enough to support a pleasant lifestyle – or could when that was possible (in my circumstances and chosen field) and I sincerely do not recollect a learning curve. It was always there, and only required the other 50% of the recipe: the professional model. I have repeatedly declared my belief in, and appreciation of the wonderful amateur shooters whose work I have seen. Photography is one of the very few artistic things I can do; I have no musical talent whatsoever. That doesn’t mean that though I listen to music all day long, I am therefore a more true musician than the guys who actually play at the local bar on Sundays. But somehow, in photography there exist those who think it does indeed make them more close to the fountain than are the pros...
2. The first four years of my working life, as engineering apprentice, were spent figuring a way to find employment in photograph. Self-employment was a fantasy then. Ever after those four years I earned my living solely via professional photography: the first five or six or in an industrial unit, followed by setting up on my own after a year with another Glasgow studio. During my first year or so on my own I did passports, weddings, absolutely anything at all to keep the studio doors open and the dishes in chemicals. I rapidly reached a Damascene moment when I realised that I either remained a whore unto myself or gave up the stocking fillers and went for the real deal I’d always sought: fashion. It showed me that faith has muscle. I took the risk and am happy for that.
In my case, my wife was a working (when required) partner in the business; she hated it – couldn’t get to terms with the idiotic behaviour of clients and suppliers, many of whom had their finer moments when blind drunk at dinner somewhere.
I no longer have the strength to cycle anywhere, but have often considered the purchase of a Vespa because most of the magnificent natural areas in the mountains beside me allow no parking whatsoever.
3. I have two teachers in the family. One unfortunate aspect of the job is that it never ends when the school closes: it consumes almost as much ‘private’ time as does the part in the institutions. Salaries are not very good; future pensions are currently far from known. Much like self-employed photographers, then.
4. I can top your 80%. Would you challenge 99%? That’s why there is no amateur photography for me that grabs my heart. I lived for the work that I did, but it is only possible with budgets beyond my own, and of that 99%, a huge percentage of the buzz is in the act of winning the contract. The two are permanently married, for me.
So though you haven’t said so, others have, and I take this opportunity to refute for the last time the silly notion that an amateur is more in love with photography than a professional because he does it for nothing. That’s reasoning’s so skewed that it beggars belief that anyone can imagine another snapper putting life and living into the blessed job did he not love it. Love it more than anything else of which he was capable of doing for a living.
There are two basic choices in normal life:
a. a job that pays well, provides a good pension but forever keeps you someone else’s employee;
b. doing you own thing, making your own decisions, living or dying by them, the lot of the solo pro photographer, for one.
I fail to understand the concept of the former, earning his keep elsewhere, being thought the truer fan of photography. He risks nothing, other than his pride, but someone somewhere will always tell him he’s wonderful even when he most certainly is not. (Those +1 and Me too! concepts didn’t come from nowhere and for nothing! For a start, they allow people to avoid having to explain their views and invent fresh, platitudinous fibs.)
;-)
Rob C