I just wrote a post on my own blog, titled Plight of the Avid Amateur, spurred by my quest to replace a broken camera.
You see, although I consider myself primarily a writer, my writing chronicles many of my adventures and, well, some things you just can't describe properly. You have to show them.
So, for the sake of my blog (at least initially), I have become a photographer. And although at first, my photos were meant to merely accompany my writing - to illustrate my travels as a visual aid - over time, occasionally the photos have become the thing, and my words transition the reader from one photo to another, in a photo essay that's more photo than essay.
But does taking pictures make me a photographer?
This is a question I faced when I broke my cheap, portable, relatively automatic camera.
In my post, I wrote:
Since I use a relatively low-end model, l'd been thinking for a while that I should upgrade to a better camera. Though I think I use it well, if I ever want to exhibit my photography, or print it, maybe I should be taking better pictures.
Unfortunately, I'm just not trained as a photographer. I'm entirely self-taught by trial-and-error, and even when I had a nice 35MM SLR camera, I mostly relied on its automatic settings rather than exploiting its manual settings.
Ultimately, though I did try out some fancier cameras, I did end up settling on another cheap one as an adequate replacement, a decision over which I agonized. I thought maybe I should buckle down and take a photography class and actually learn the craft, to hone whatever talent I actually might have, and use a real camera. After all, doesn't the camera make the photographer? In any craft, isn't your handiwork at least somewhat judged by the quality of your equipment?
For whatever reason - perhaps preferring comfort and familiarity - I have chosen not to learn, and now I've rationalized it (to myself, at least). I wrote:
...A songwriter who writes music on a keyboard they can't play might not take piano lessons, because it would limit them - impose rules on them - thereby changing their songwriting style. There is a freedom in not knowing, in being unrestricted by technique.
I'll admit, as (only) an avid amateur, I might not be photographing the correct way. But I not only love taking those photos: I also love the photos I take.
Would I love them any more if I actually knew what I was doing?
Would anyone?
If the songwriter who isn't a trained musician writes beloved music, who cares how they wrote it?
Besides, how much artistic expression can actually be learned? Or is the important part the passion, the feeling, the vision - that which is already inside of you?
"Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent.
The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent."
- Miles Davis
