Simple Test: Are You a Photographer?

Are you a photographer? Here’s a simple test: Can you show me a photograph? I didn’t say “image”, I said photograph. A photograph is something tangible, that I can hold in my hand. Printed on paper.

I am a photographer and I have proof: I print photographs, my walls are covered in them and my shelves have small framed photographs on them. I print and frame photographs for friends. I make photo books, too.

My latest book, 4x4x5, which documents my 4x4x5 Photo Project.

Print the photos you want to last–photographs on walls or in photo albums or photo books.

Because digital files that no one ever sees, that are locked in a folder on a hard drive aren’t photographs, they’re files locked in a folder on a hard drive that no one ever sees. If this is all you make, you are an image maker and filer, not a photographer.

Photographers make photographs. So, are you a photographer?

Print your work! Then it will last and will be seen and exist long after that hard drive stops booting up. After all, it was made by a photographer!

Find me with a new Video every Saturday on YouTube at HeresToGoodLight.com and my Daily Photography Podcast at Podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-photography-blog-kenneth-wajdas-photography-talks/id1384332744 – Here’s to good light!