> it's no picnic getting people past the silly notions like I'm seeing expressed here. > Most everyone I know is an artist (I guess I need to get around more!) and I have never Alan Your use of the phrase "silly notions" is in itself elitist - appearing to claim superiority (sit in judgement on) lesser beings on the outside. Somebody who produces sculpture, or oil paintings for a living - or even just prolifically in their spare time - they are artists in the traditional sense. That does not mean you like their work, or even consider it "artistic" - in the wider sense - but it's clearly what they do. But what of photography: inherently anything using a recording medium to record light and, now expanded, any electromagnetic radiation and now, further expanded, to include pictures that are complete fiction. If you look through the "viewfinder" and press the shutter you are making aesthetic judgements per se. So when in a reply to David you use the phrase (innocently) "Snap-shooters" is that not elitist ? What is the pecking order? Snapper, Hack, Photographer, Technician, Artist ... Owning an camera IMO is no more a definition of an artist than owning a paint brush. At what point does a photographer rise from being a snapper to an artist anyway? When they start to call themselves an artist or when others do? All IMO and all "silly notions" I'm afraid ... Bob
