Could You Repeat that Please?

I have to admit it; I’ve been very close to being taken in by the latest fad in photography.  I'm calling it a fad, but I just think it’s more of a contagion…a contagion of fancy talk.  Politicians can be known to do this when describing something quite ordinary but making it sound quite extraordinary.  This same practice has crept into our photography and utilizes subleties designed to differentiate the elitists from the more pedestrian (or “amateur”) photographers.  When someone asks if you shoot “raw”  or if your gear is "full frame”, they may really want to know, or they may be trying to send a message.  But if they ask whether you create photographs or simply shoot pictures, their question is dripping with superiority.

It is this esoteric distinction between "shooting pictures" and "creating photographs" that I’ve been noticing has crept into our vernacular.  I recently watched a video where a photographer was speaking in hushed and reverent tones as he referred to his craft of creating photographs…and he went on to say it was much more than simply taking pictures.  Really?  To me it sounded a bit self-aggrandizing?

In the simplest terms, you press the shutter to record the light entering the camera through the lens.  You’re recording that light either on film or on a digital sensor.  You then transfer that information by some method to another media that allows people to see what it is that you captured.  So what’s all the hub bub about this “making” versus “taking”, the “creating” versus the “capturing”?  Is it just the artistry of language or is it the “politics” of photography?

I have to admit I was nearly taken in by it all.  Shoot and shot, capture and take, I’d begun to accept that they’re simply too barbaric to describe the artistry that I bring to my photography.  I too should talk that way.  And maybe a fancy accent would add some mystique! But in reality, outside of photographers who use this language with each other, we must sound a little goofy when talking to “normal” people!

When we tell our friends we spent the afternoon making photographs, they probably conclude that we were either in a darkroom (if they know what that is), or that we were simply at Costco picking up prints!  If you say you were shooting pictures, capturing images, etc., they know we were out with the camera doing our thing.  And isn’t this what communications is all about—we say stuff so other people understand what we mean?  Of course photography is a craft, people get that.  It’s an artistic expression, and it’s our passion—people get that too.  Do we really need to load up the language with euphemistic phrases that try to elevate the importance of what we do, when all it really does is make our communication more ambiguous and less understandable? Photography is rich with possibilities and offers a beautiful way to “speak” about life and nature...to describe, persuade, and inspire…like a song with visual notes.

So in the interest of clarity, from now on, when I say I’m taking pictures, shooting pictures, and capturing images you should expect to find me with my camera in my hands.  And when I say I’m editing or processing images, you can expect to find me in front of my computer.  And if by some chance you catch me saying that I’m creating photographs, then please stop me and say "excuse me?".