Thursday, July 31, 2008

john jacob jingle Ansel Adams, his name is my name too.

Ah, the modern day "photographer".

It seems that everywhere you look these days, someone is touting themselves as a photographer.
I dare say you could not venture through ONE set of "myspace" friends without finding at least one person who fancies themself a picture picasso. *lower case on purpose*

I have looked at the pictures of these so called "professional" photographers and I believe perhaps Dorthea Lange would not be worried about her spot in the bread line, if you catch my drift.

What makes people thing that just because photography equipment is more readily accessible than ever before, they are able to stake claim to something previously considered ART?

Since when did getting a kid to smile in the center of a picture make you a professional photographer? When did snapping a pic with your digital whatever while some dog is shaking drool off its face qualify you as "having a knack" for photography?

My favorites though....have got to be the "fashion" photographers. You all know these guys. They get some 19 year old girls to sit on rocks, motorcycles, on the beach, or in a railway station posing in bikini or a short skirt and heels and they call themselves photographers.
Ugh.

Would someone please tell these ego maniacs that a snap shot does not a photographer make.
Criminy.
It is my firm belief that before you are allowed to BUY a camera you should have to sign a waiver that you have at least BEEN to a photography exhibit, or at the very least, are not going to attempt to pretend you are a photographer because your new camera has auto-focus and you are now able to take clear pictures.

Heck, even Anne Geddes, although best known for those goofy babies-as-other-stuff pictures, has some beautiful work SANS butterfly wings, cow costumes and flower petals.

When it comes down to memories...
I am all for the family pictures taken by Great Aunt Josephine with her thumb in the corner and the subjects of her sneak attack making a face or caught drinking out of the milk jug.

--and when it comes to professional photography....leave it to the artists, not the weekend Cannon warriors.


Please visit some REAL photography when you get a chance. There is a lot of beauty in the world, and the only way some of us may ever see it is through someone else's eye.

http://www.annegeddes.com/modules/anne/galleries/browse.aspx?pi_galleryid=3

http://www.davidgallery.net/Shows.cfm

http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/eugesmith.htm

http://www.artwolfe.com/cgi/shop/detail.cgi?r=DP894

http://www.muenchphotography.com/

http://www.johnshawphoto.com/favorites_gallery/index_fav.html

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