The Seven Levels of Photographers
A Spiritual and Satirical Guide. I summarize this into 2 levels here.
© 2007 KenRockwell.com
Full text here
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm
[excerpt]
Artist: Top Level 7 (equivalent to "Heaven" in Christian mythology)
This is the highest level.
An artist fixes his imagination in a tangible form called a photograph. He captures the spirit of place or person, real or imagined, in this photograph and the viewer responds to this.
A whore is an artist who sells his soul by accepting money or drugs for his art.
By lowering himself to this level his vision is compromised.
People who earn less than half of their income from photography are amateurs. This has nothing to do with the quality of their photography.
This is my mom and most people. These people want memories, as opposed to photographs or cameras.
A professional photographer is a person who earns his entire living (100%) from the sale of photographs.
These are amateurs who, by having too much money, buy lots of equipment which can fetter their freedom of expression. They are mostly men, and many are old or retired.
Equipment Measurbator: Bottom Level 1 (equivalent to "Hell" in Christian mythology)
These men (and they are all men) have no interest in art or photography because they have no souls. Lacking souls they cannot express imagination or feeling, which is why their images, if they ever bother to make any, suck.
These folks have analysis paralysis and never accomplish anything.
Online Expert or Armchair Photographer: Level 0 (these guys don't take pictures so they aren't a level of photographer.)
This level never existed before the internet, because cameras were never as exciting as sports cars or missiles for men to research.
