"Are you a photographer?"

[Hugo Zhang]

Looking up and smiling, the girl asked me. "Well," redfaced and stammering, I tried hard to think and give the right answer, "I do take pictures with a wooden camera, but not for a living." This happened four weeks ago when a group of people were wine tasting in a beautifl vineyard near Santa Barbara. Upon arriving, I was so enchanted by the mission style building of the vineyard, its white walls with black bells bathed in the slanting golden light of a late afternoon. There was also a light early summer breeze. So I went back to my car and took out my Deardorff and Ries tripod and made four exposures while other people tasted their wine. When all finished, hot, thirsty and happy, I went to the hall to join my friends and to taste the four different wines I had paid and not touched. That was when my friend Tony tried to explain to the wine girl why I was late. "You should see him with that big wood camera you only see in the movies taking pictures outside." Even today, I still try to think of the right answer to this question. If I give a wrong answer, the next question will be if I do weddings. You must have been asked the same question, those of us who don't make a living by taking pictures, what is the right answer?

[Josh Z.]

My answer: Nope, but I am pretty good at pretending.

[Ralph Barker]

"Are you a photographer?"

"Yes, and I can make you a Star!"

"Do you do weddings?"

"No, but I do funerals and federal prison sentencings."

;)

[paulr]

why does saying "i'm a photographer" imply that i do it for a living?

i've done a lot of different things for a living, including scooping ice cream. is that what i was?

[Steve J Murray]

I love that scene in Blow Up where David Hemmings is photographing the woman and she is obviously upset about it and she tells him something like "you can't just take people's pictures . . ." and he replies: " well, I'm a photographer, that's what I do," or something like that. Its like he's saying he has a camera and his goal or intention is to photograph what he sees in the world, and that justifies the act.

You have a camera and want to record something you see. You are a photographer. What you do with the images is after the fact.

[David A. Goldfarb]

"Are you a photographer?"

"Well, is this a Hasselblad or what?"

[Oren Grad]

I'm a small-p photographer, not a capital-P Photographer...

[Keith S. Walklet]

Serious photographer or dabbler, I prefer John Sexton's take on this. He made a presentation at a NAMPA conference some years ago where he stated, "I am an amateur photographer." He then went on to explain his rationale, noting that the definition of amateur is "someone who does something for the love of it." Perfect.

[Jay DeFehr]

When I'm not distracted by reality.

[Capocheny]

"Are you a photographer?"


Nope, this here is my lunch box! :) :)

Cheers

[Dan Schmidt]

You sure are a photographer, but you may accurately get the situation across by saying "it is a [obsesion, passion, love etc] of mine"

[paulr]

or how about,

"photographer? oh, no. I'm merely an artistic visionary who snaps a few pics now and then."

[Paul Metcalf]

My most often "conversation" with curious observers:

From women (moms): "Is that a camera?" followed by "Are you a professional?" (if only they knew!)

From men (dads): "Well, I haven't seen something like that in while" (glad it's not the women saying that)

From kids: "mom, what's he doing?" (from well behind their mom)

Oh, and from security: "no tripods allowed"

[chris jordan]

"Are you a photographer?"

"Only for a 125th of a second at a time."

[Lazybones]

Yes.

[Scott Davis]

no, but I play one on TV...

Smile. You're on Candid Camera!!

[Maris Rusis]

I guess I may have over-reacted to the sad debasement of the word "photographer" but I have eliminated it from my vocabulary.

In this part of the world any user of any camera (camcorder, TV camera, digital gizmo, web-cam, etc) with any kind of image acquisition and any form of output (monitor screen, chimp-able camera LCD, hardcopy of any kind, etc) is elevated to the status of photographer.

It gets worse. A famous Australian "photographer" who gets picture prices in the thousands often eschews the camera work and all the other parts as well and confines her input to wrangling the camera workers, models, set makers, lighting guys, lab staff, art marketers and anyone else who can further her (very successful!) career. If that is what it means to be a photographer then count me out.

I use the phrase photograph maker. This seems to fit well with my practice of making surfaces that bear marks by virtue of being struck by light (real photographs) and to make these objects in full, one at a time, start to finish, by my own hand.

[Sanders McNew]

Sitting in an airport departure gate, I loaded a roll of film into my Rolleiflex balanced on my lap. A couple in their 80s watched intently across from me. Once I closed the back, he asked: "Is that a film camera?" Yes, I said. Then the wife: "Can you still get film for it?"

Here's your ticket.

Sanders McNew

[chris jordan]

Okay, how often does this happen to you: Someone walks by your LF camera and looks into the lens and says "Hi Mom!" as if it's a big video camera with a bellows. A crowd of teenagers once did that when I had my camera pointed vertically up into a tree.

[Jon Wilson]

"Are you a photographer?" Yes, it is cheaper than therapy. Jon

[Mark Sawyer]

Q: "Are you a photographer?"

A: "At this moment in time, yes..."

[David R Munson]

"Are you a photographer?"
"I'm a person who does photography."
"So, you're a photographer..."
"No, I'm a person who does photography."
"What are you talking about?"
"Semiotic ghosts. Don't box me in."

[Andre Noble]

"Are you a soldier?"

"Yes, I am a soldier."

[Donald Qualls]

"Are you a photographer?" (spoken while I'm unfolding a camera and setting up my tripod)

"Yep"

"Professional?" (as I'm pulling out the front standard on my 1920s vintage plate camera and distributing the bellows to prevent vignetting)

"Not yet -- haven't found anyone to pay me for this."

Haven't yet had anyone as me if my Speed Graphic was a Hasselblad, though -- I think most of them actually recognize that one, and even if they don't remember what it's called, they're pretty sure it's not Hasselblad.

[John Flavell]

This is my favorite question, especially from the young. And my answer:

"Are you, like, a photographer?"

"No, I'm exactly a photographer. I'm not LIKE anyone you've ever met."



Rodney Dangerfield line from a movie, while he's taking kid pictures:

Mom: "He has my eyes"
Grandmother: "He has my nose"

Dangerfield: "Yeah, and my sympathy"

[lee\c]

Jorge used to have a sig that said, "If you own a piano, you own a piano but if you own a camera you are a photographer." I think that is accurate if not the seniment is the same.

lee\c

[Hugo Zhang]

When I use LF camera to make B&W images, I think the right answer is: "I am an image maker."

[Ken Lee]

"Just as a man shudders with horror when he thinks he has trodden on a serpent, but laughs when he stoops and sees that it is only a rope, so I discovered one day that what I was calling 'I' can not be grasped. All fear and anxiety vanished with my mistake".

- Buddha

[jnantz]

it depends what you mean by photographer

[David Beal]

I'm a writer, writing about the today that will be a memory tomorrow. But I write with light, instead of ink ...

[Hugo Zhang]

"I'm a writer, writing about the today that will be a memory tomorrow."


Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.

----from "Ulysses"

[Kirk Keyes]

Mr. Photographer. Sounds good! Then I could be a true photographer.

Maybe we should all adopt it as our last names so that our names are what we do. Kind of like Mr. Miller, Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Smith, Mr. Archer, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Baker, Mr. Thatcher, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Shepperd, Mr. Wright. And just like the Ramones...

[Dirk Baeumker]

I learned the technique of taking photographs as I learned the technique of writing.

I don't know if the first took me any closer to being a photographer than the second to being a poet.

Actually I've never been asked by anybody if I was a poet.
Dirk...