DIY Photography has a decent article on why Photography is art. It should be of no surprise that I agree.
I’ve fallen a bit behind on my RSS feeds, so I only encountered the article AFTER seeing Ewen Bell’s video on how every photo is a lie. (And even then, I watched the video after hearing the same episode in his podcast.)
My own take on why photography is art is similar to what’s linked above, but it boils down to this: I’m making creative choices, so it’s art.
I’m choosing what to crop, what angle to use, and if I have a fancier model in my hands I’m adjusting focal lengths, shutter speeds, apertures, and even occasionally the ISO from one shot to the next.
But even if all I’m doing is deciding what should be within the frame and when I should press the button, it’s art.
Now things get fuzzier when someone else’s choices start getting involved.
During the school year, the vast majority of my photos are of school events – in particular, our student performances.
I’ve taken thousands of photos of our band, orchestra, chorus, piano, and theater students doing amazing things on stage.
There’s a lot of shots where I’m incredibly proud to be the one who captured THAT image.
I don’t keep them. Not a single one is on a personal hard drive of mine. They aren’t even printed out and hung on a wall, or kept in an album.
I don’t really think of them as mine.
Our performances are planned by amazing people, including but not limited to the students. Someone decides where everyone will be, how they should move, and which lights will be pointing in which direction.
That’s a lot of creative choices. That’s art.
I’m happy to do the work I do during those shows, but I’m not there to make art. I’m there to document THEIR art. My hard work exists to show off what they’re doing. After each show, I hand the photos over to the teacher(s) in charge of the performance and let them decide what to do next. At that point, I’ve removed myself from the process.
I could probably argue that my photos are a collaborative effort, and many do. I make that assertion for my students who are doing the same thing during performances, as I want them credited for their efforts.
I don’t know why I prefer to not be treated the same, but that’s the case. The art is theirs.
I count myself fortunate to have the privilege of documenting it.