Photography, My Recreational Diversion

“Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be”
~ E. Weston

I found this quote upon the Facebook-wall of Mel Neumann, a fellow photographer here in Adelaide, South Australia. Whilst I like the quote, it bugged me that it defines amateurs as recreational artists and professionals as hard workers.

My thoughts are that…

1. An artist is someone who allows their art to be a recreational diversion.
   As a photographic-artist, I use my photography to be recreational in my down-time from my professional day-job. This won’t work everyone, particularly those whose art is their bread&butter.
2. An artist should not be defined an amateur if they don’t do it full-time.
   Any person with the luxury of affording to photography full-time must be charging horrendous prices to make up for the down/slack time throughout the year.

So I wrote an addendum to the quote:

“Photography is a sport that remains recreational, pleasurable and fun even when it is hard work. The art is not defined by the path taken, but by the passion and drive of the artist.”
~ Stephen Mitchell (c. 2011)

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