Are Photographers artists?

Recently I went to see Blindboy Boatclub’s podcast live here in Manchester, and the guest he had on was legendary guitarist Johnny Marr, from The Smiths. A beacon, of local (to me) talent. And there were a lot of great topics they chatted about throughout the night, but there was one conversation that really got me thinking.

They were talking about how music is one of, if not the oldest art form in the world. But we’ve only been able to record it for the last 150 years or so. Music, previously, was a temporary, fleeting thing, meant to be enjoyed in the moment, often with a group of other people. But now, we can take almost any song in the world, and listen to it directly from them, in the privacy of our own headphones.

Of course music has been being recorded by hand in the form of sheet music and lyrics for a long time, but mostly, it was passed down orally, especially in folk communities. Families passed songs down to each other around kitchen tables with handmade instruments, and over time, they adapted and took on new flavour and new lyrics to become something unique to them.

So how does this relate to photography? Humans have had what seems like an innate want to record the world around them since we started painting in caves. But the paintings themselves, we have always seen through the artist's eyes, rather than a true representation of the scene itself. So much music was created to imitate the sounds of nature, of birds singing, rain falling, or waves crashing, but always through artistic interpretation.

Photography was created not long before the invention of sound recording, and what a marvel, that we can now directly capture what we see in front of us with our own eyes! However, a photograph cannot live up to exactly how our eyes perceive the scene, even the most basic of snapshots has been framed, and angled by the person taking the photo. Maybe it’s been edited to boost the colour, or contrast, or it’s been retouched gloriously in Photoshop to look fantastical and out of this world. Is that not seeing the world through artistic interpretation? And does this not make photographers, artists?

I would hope most people wouldn’t denounce musicians as artists and instead refer to them as service providers, simply because they’re able to record what they create whether through analogue or digital techniques. So why are so many photographers questioned when we call ourselves artists?

Even I have only recently felt comfortable calling myself an artist, because I had so many voices both in person, and in media, telling me that my art form didn’t count, because ‘the camera does it all for you’ which isn’t any more true than saying recording equipment ‘does it all for you’ (and yes, that includes autotune.)

I am an artist because I know in my heart that I am, and I know that what I create is art, and if you disagree, tough, it’s not up to you 😊