Photography is not cheap, and it will never be, unless you consider “snapshooting,” photography. Most people perceive photography as a business and money-making opportunity, a venture to earn big bucks out of the unlimited shutter clicks on each digital camera. Businessmen, who know nothing other than profits, cash, and company checks, assume the same – for as they say, “digital naman.”
Photographers indeed make money out of their crafts, but they do so precisely because they deserve to be paid for their skills and artworks. They have earned their way to learn and perfect a craft, a not-so-easy feat to begin with. Chefs cook, doctor’s cure, actors act, professors teach. Like these professionals, photographers too spend years, and maybe even decades, learning and mastering the art. Just like an ordinary person, photographers too spend money (that most don’t have enough of, by the way) for this craft. Photographers too spend time, energy, effort, and passion producing an output, something that will always be a part of the photographer as an artist, and something that will identify the work as a product of the artist. This identity from the artist is what makes each piece unique, what gives each piece an attitude and character, what makes each work important. this identity is the “essence” of the artist, if you may – the “essence” that is largely connected to the special talent and skill needed to translate the passion within into a tangible piece of work, into an 8x10 that you hang on to the wall or put in a gold-gilded frame waiting for guests to ooh and aah.
Secondly, someone’s got to pay the rent.
Photographers indeed make money out of their crafts, but they do so precisely because they deserve to be paid for their skills and artworks. They have earned their way to learn and perfect a craft, a not-so-easy feat to begin with. Chefs cook, doctor’s cure, actors act, professors teach. Like these professionals, photographers too spend years, and maybe even decades, learning and mastering the art. Just like an ordinary person, photographers too spend money (that most don’t have enough of, by the way) for this craft. Photographers too spend time, energy, effort, and passion producing an output, something that will always be a part of the photographer as an artist, and something that will identify the work as a product of the artist. This identity from the artist is what makes each piece unique, what gives each piece an attitude and character, what makes each work important. this identity is the “essence” of the artist, if you may – the “essence” that is largely connected to the special talent and skill needed to translate the passion within into a tangible piece of work, into an 8x10 that you hang on to the wall or put in a gold-gilded frame waiting for guests to ooh and aah.
Secondly, someone’s got to pay the rent.
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