I am a photographer. The problem with telling people that is that they seem to think that I take pictures for a living. I don’t.
Sure, photography is what I’m trained to do. Every job I’ve had and the past 12 years of my education has revolved around photography. I honestly don’t know how to do anything else. I doubt I have the skills to get a clerical job and I think they would even fire me for being incompetent at McDonalds. Photography is my life – by default.
I never intended to enter this field. I just liked to take pictures – with no intent to make money from it. It was only after being immersed in it for a while that it occurred to me that I could make money from it.
Seriously, the thought of taking pictures for a living makes me nauseous. Don’t take this to mean that I think of myself as an artist – far from it. Calling myself an artist feels just as wrong as calling myself a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist.
I don’t know what I am. I just know that I’m not that easily labeled. I like to write, but I don’t want to be a writer; I like to create. Then, of course, it occurs to me that I don’t need to be labeled as anything at all. I’ll just do the things I like to do and that’s enough.
Sure, photography is what I’m trained to do. Every job I’ve had and the past 12 years of my education has revolved around photography. I honestly don’t know how to do anything else. I doubt I have the skills to get a clerical job and I think they would even fire me for being incompetent at McDonalds. Photography is my life – by default.
I never intended to enter this field. I just liked to take pictures – with no intent to make money from it. It was only after being immersed in it for a while that it occurred to me that I could make money from it.
Seriously, the thought of taking pictures for a living makes me nauseous. Don’t take this to mean that I think of myself as an artist – far from it. Calling myself an artist feels just as wrong as calling myself a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist.
I don’t know what I am. I just know that I’m not that easily labeled. I like to write, but I don’t want to be a writer; I like to create. Then, of course, it occurs to me that I don’t need to be labeled as anything at all. I’ll just do the things I like to do and that’s enough.
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