What makes you an Artist rather than a Photographer

[Steven Barall]

If money is a exchanging hands I guess it matters but if you agree that what you do has no intrinsic value (Art) then it doesn't matter.

[reellis67]

It's all about marketing...

[percepts]

If money is a exchanging hands I guess it matters but if you agree that what you do has no intrinsic value (Art) then it doesn't matter.

Just because you call your work art doesn't assign any value to it whatsoever. That is for the viewer to decide.

[joseph therrien]

Pro or amatuer are two further distinctions to complicate matters, but to me, the artist is the person who determines or defines the parameters of the project, and is instrumental in the execution. I am sure there are artists who for money, let someone else do the creative part of the assignment and just work as a skilled technician. Some of todays top photographers, Greg Crewdson comes to mind, function more like Directors.

[percepts]

It's all about marketing...

So I should be suspicious of the motives of anyone calling themselves artist. I am anyway but a quick look at their work tells me what they are about. And often it tells me they are not fine art photographers but landscape photographers or some other genre of photographer.

[Robert Hughes]

No it's not marketing - that's just the commercial aspect. It's attitude. How do you see yourself? Are you interested in taking pictures? Or are you interested in expressing a worldview through "deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions"?

You can be both.

[percepts]

I don't think anyone has the right to name themself an artist - this is done by others. Graduating from art school or getting a BFA or MFA does not make one an artist just as getting an EdD does not make one a teacher.

I agree. Those things give you a grounding in the subject.

[percepts]

One word - Google.

Cynical indeed... But also very naive. People buy what interests them. They don't say I want to buy a photograph and look for "fine art photographer" or "artist". They look for what interests them. So typically they would look for "images of location" or "photographs of location" or "painting of location" and not "artist". Using the word artist in your web site won't get you anything unless you happen to come first in google for the word artist and that is not about to happen. You are competing with every other artist in the world for that slot. But narrow it down to what your work is actually of and you have a far better chance of getting found by a seriously interested person.

I think many photographers do themselves a disservice calling themselves fine art photographer when calling themselves documentary photographer or landscape photographer would tell it how it really is.

[percepts]

"I are one."
Actually, we all know an artist when we see one, no matter the trade.
What is amazing are the people who buy a digitial camera and suddenly become
"Wedding Photographer", "Portrait Photographer", "Commercial Photographer", etc.

And also how many people retire and metamorphose into a "fine art photographer" as though it was a lifestyle choice.

[percepts]

IMO, if you are making photographs for the pupose of creating things that would hang on a wall or maybe fill a portfolio box as opposed to serve some marketing or journalistic purpose, then you are making art. Whether it's good or not, might be another topic, but if the ultimate purpose is as an expression of your emotional response to a subject for people to view and enjoy, it's art. This is not to say that photographs made for the purpose of advertizing or journalism couldn't alternately be considered as art in a different viewing context. I think of a wonderful photograph of a speeding Karmann Ghia that appeared in a VW ad back in the 1960's as a perfect example. It was an ad first, but art after the fact.

I think most advertising photography is art. More so than landscape photography. It is highly contrived to convey very suggestive ideas. Good art always does that.

But why do we need to call ourselves Artists? Is it because that gives us higher status than a mere photographer?