On: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 Jonathan Coleman wrote:- > Without being complacent, I think pretty much everyone using > photography, whether social or commercial, realise the huge difference > the eye and experience of the professional brings to the image.
Well, we all understand this, if only some could realise that true professionalism starts with being an amateur - someone who does something because they love doing it for the sake of it. This is what true professionals remember about themselves when things get rough. There was a time when film, chemicals and paper formed a natural barrier against wannabes entering the profession without paying their amateur dues. This began to fall apart somewhere around the late '80s when wannabes on (say) the London scene discovered that if they hired a studio and equipment for a day and with the results processed in a lab and hand printed by a pro....they could get away with it. Since that particular infrastructure has now gone, we have instead digicams and Photoshop to take up the slack. Young people entering the profession understand this, they also understand that the world is stacked to the rafters with beautiful photographic imagery which is meaningless to them. I have great faith in the young. Sooner or later they will collectively rediscover that it all comes from an ability to 'see'. I have now all but retired from the photographic profession, and keep it real for myself by being a photographic hunter-gatherer. So I guess that I am now once again an amateur - what a relief:) Yippee! All the best. William Curwen http://www.william.ws =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
