I had just finished a talk to a local camera club on black and white photography. It was time for follow up questions from the floor. We had the usual discussion of Photoshop techniques but I was somewhat floored by the last question. “Do you consider yourself more an artist or photographer?”
And a very good question it is too. I’d never even thought of things in that way. I’m not sure my rather improvised response did the question any justice at all. Now I’ve had a few days to think about it I’m still unsure whether I can answer the question with any certainty. At the very least though I can pull apart the reasons why I find it difficult to come up with a reply.
Why ask the question?
First of all, why had the question cropped up at all? During my talk I had emphasised a couple of aspects of my work. I had spoken about my preference for developing sets of pictures rather than concentrating on one image at a time. I had also explained how I was trying to make my images more metaphorical with different layers of stories in them.
Most of all I had talked about how I hoped viewers of my images could impose their own meanings on the pictures. I hoped to be able to leave space for alternative interpretations rather than handing down the “correct” story from on high.
Then add to that what I didn’t talk much about. The camera and Photoshop techniques are pretty well expected during such talks. So I could see how my audience might well call into question my qualifications for being considered a photographer.
But “artist”?
The thing is, I just point my camera at things and take photographs. I feel quite uncomfortable standing up and shouting “I’m an Artist”. It feels quite a pretentious thing to do, and anyway what am I doing, labelling myself like that?
Work in Progress
Maybe I’d given the game away when I started talking about a current work in progress. I’ve been spending time walking the woodland paths alongside the Leader Water here in the Scottish Borders. Local residents have built interesting tracks weaving in and out of the various plantations attached to the old country houses nearby. Cowdenknowes, Drygrange, Sorrowlessfield and others. The paths contour up and down the steep valley sides taking you from water’s edge up to views through the deciduous canopy up in the sky.
There are old pheasant breeding runs, the remains of extensive kitchen gardens, old hydro plants. And the light. Such light. The trees filter the light very nicely for the photographer and present different conditions depending on the cloud cover and the leaf season. Any number of stories for a landscape photographer to latch onto.
But I’d gone a stage further and spoken about how I was looking for a theme for the pictures I was taking that wasn’t just about the geographical there and then. Darkness to light was an obvious topic. So transitions – depths to heights, black to white, maybe despair to redemption. Ah, maybe that was it!
So, artist or photographer?
But does that mean I’m not a photographer? Well, I use a camera, I take photographs, I use Photoshop. Of course I’m a photographer. But more an artist?
There’s maybe something of a false dichotomy going on here. Many of the pictures I create have no ulterior motivation going for them other than I felt the image might be striking or interesting. But for my extended projects, I certainly do feel they are maybe in danger of becoming artistic endeavours.
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How a small edit changes a snapshot to fine art
How can one photo work as both a snapshot and as fine art with just one small edit?
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The Heron Wood, 2020 an intuitive project
Is your photography thought-through or more intuitive? Do your pictures depend on your experience or do you just go exploring?
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Ian Roper and North Crag Eliminate
How a photograph both frightened and excited me when I first saw it. Can photographs really have that sort of an impact?
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Denis Thorpe and Hebden Bridge
How a black and white picture of Hebden Bridge by Denis Thorpe in the Guardian in 1978 still influences how I take photographs today.
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Contract or assumption: what do I owe the viewer?
Is it realistic to expect a photographer to concern himself with his viewers expectation about the nature of photography?
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Don’t ask me about my camera settings
When you start out it sometimes feels like other photographers are deliberately hiding the details of their craft from you. It takes a little time to realise that the most important feature of the camera is the viewfinder.
