On Being Amateur
Today we are in awe with the term “professional”, we somehow feel this designation is equivalent to an expert, someone who has mastered not only the craft but also the art. That’s not just an exaggeration but also can be totally misleading. A professional photographer is anyone who earns his living through photography and doesn’t guarantee an interest (passion is too intense a word to use) in the craft or art aspect of photography by definition itself. A deeper interest and curiosity in the tools and the creative outcomes of using the tools for personal expression are entirely disconnected to the monetary benefits that may be generated in the process. Can you be a professional and an artist, of course there are many such great artists who inspire us all the time, but then we also have inspirations like Van Gogh, who sold just one painting in his life time.
And here’s what the father of modern photography has to say -
“Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with photography – that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs. As a matter of fact nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies, an amateur is one who works for love; and viewed in this light the incorrectness of the popular classification is readily apparent.”
– Alfred Stieglitz
Being an Amateur (lover as the french mean it) is to be in love with something, it is not about your occupation but constant preoccupation, an obsession, a one sided pathological pursuit.
Footnote: The image used in the post is Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh