I have been thinking lately about the language I use when speaking about myself and my work. To me it makes a difference in how I feel about what I do. All through their childhood my children heard me say " Terminology is everything” and I stick with that ideal.
I find that thinking of myself as an artist has a different result on how I think of my work than when I use the word craftsman. In my heart I believe I am a craftsman. The objects I make and the way that I make them hold a large portion of the emotion I feel for my work. When I think of myself as an artist I find that I am looking more towards the content of the works and possibly am less concerned with process and the beauty of the object. The end result being I am happier with the work I am making when I think of being a craftsman.
Now comes the rub. The 2 terms, labels, words are loaded with meaning for many of us. I am sure you know what I am talking about. Having spoken to a couple of important friends about this I was told that they think of themselves as printmakers. This I like.
What do you call yourself? Does it change your feelings about the work you are making? Do you simply avoid it ? I would very much like to hear from y’all.
Be well,
Ray
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I was recently interviewed for inclusion in the next issue of a new photo magazine here in New Orleans (https://densitypress.substack.com/) and, when asked to define what I am, I said, without thinking, I’m a printmaker. Everything else – subject, light, camera, negative – is in service to what I hope the print will look like. Photographer or artist is how I respond when most people ask what I do because those terms are more readily accepted and easily digested.
Hi Ray, Oddly a couple friends and I have discussed this topic lately too. I do like your term “Craftsman” as it implies a level of expertise that shows in the work/print. I’ve always had a hard time calling myself an “Artist” even though that’s also what I do, just wish there was a better word. The comment from John Baswell and his term “Artisan” sounds better to me, I like that. The term photographer, while accurate, may have many meanings. There is a huge difference between a view camera and darkroom to an iphone and computer. It is an interesting topic with plenty of room for discussion, something else I like!
I, and I suspect many of us who work with film and make prints in our darkrooms, consider ourselves craftspeople rather than artists. Developing and especially printing are very tactile, and with manual burning and dodging no two prints will be identical. That is craft. Art has to do with the content of the image, and to be a bit cruel, most of our photographic images are rather mundane. All that said, I am curious whether digital photographers would come down more on the side of artist.
Ray, I’ve been thinking a great deal about language myself lately. Most about the limitations of language and the difference between the “thing in itself”and the name of the thing. How much can we “know” about the “thing” (and here I would include the beauty of the phenomenon) apart from the description of it. The intrinsic “knowledge-appreciation” of beauty is so often beyond our ability to describe it in words. I appreciate your term “craftsman” and I would include the term “artisan”. We know more than we can say.
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