Lately, there has been much tension and debate over the use of the words amateur and professional to describe various groups within our industry. In recent times, the word amateur has gained quite a bit of negative notoreity in our industry for some reason and the word professional has been elevated to almost god-like status. I will admit that I have been defining myself as an amateur, as I currently have another "day job" that pays 'dem bills (Gasp!!), and feeling quite guilty about it. I know there are many, many of your out there, photographers and others who are in the same boat and we must rise above the titles and FREE THE GUILT!! Medically and creatively speaking, guilt is a very, very bad thing and I don't know why we carry so much of it around. Especially for such an odd reason; I feel guilt because of my passion??! Hmmm...
Consider the following from David's book; the word amateur comes from the French verb meaning to love (aimer) and thus an amateur is someone who loves their craft or does what they do for the passion of it. The word professional comes from the Latin root to professio meaning someone who claims to be good at their occupation. Unfortunately, the former, in current popular language has mutated to mean someone who is a hack or fraud and the later to mean someone who is brilliant at what they do. BUT, does the fact that I love what I do (amateur) mean that my art is somehow less valuable than someone who just thinks good at what they do (professional)? I, as David does, would like to disagree. In fact, I believe that having passion and love for what you do makes a person better at their craft. So, yay for amateurs! Whether they be someone who shoots on weekends only or 7 days a week, if there is a love of the craft and a passion for the industry, then beauty will prevail. In fact, I believe we should all strive to be amateur professionals; people who love and have passion for a craft while upholding industry standards. Ah... what a wonderful world it would be... come on, sing it with me now... I know you wanna'.... ;)
Therefore, I propose a revolution of the industry for us to take back the meaning of the word amateur and re-instill the true meaning into our industry. Ask almost any photographer out there why they do what they do and 99.9% of the time, I'm sure they'll first say (as I do) that they do it for the love and passion of their craft, and professing to be personally brilliant at their craft to earn a wack-load of money will follow a very, very distant second (or maybe 52nd or 352nd....) on that list. So, say it with me (photographers and all those who do what they do for love and passion): "I AM AN AMATEUR PROFESSIONAL, and I love it!!"
Thank you and I am now done with my soapbox :) I wish you all fabulous days filled with inspiration. Don't forget to leave some blog love/ comments below.
Cheers!
lil'mamaphotog
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