The Art Chooses the Artist
Why photography is not an “Also Ran” option
“Last One In”
Hello,
I am a big science fiction and fantasy fan. And one of my favorite series is Harry Potter. I’ve read the books, watched the movies, and even read the books out loud to my daughter when she was young. (And yes, I did the voices, too.) In the books and movies, one of the subthemes throughout is that the wand chooses the wizard. Why bring this up in a newsletter about photography and art? (And for those that are not photographers reading this, please change anything in here about photography to your art, and see if you can see yourself in here as well.) Let me ask you all a question first: How often have you introduced yourself as ‘Just a photographer’? And have you ever said that you are a photographer because you ‘paint like a 5-year-old’ or ‘can’t even draw a stick figure’? Well, way too often I’ve done it, and I know many other have done it, too.
Until recently, when talking about photography to other artist about my craft, I would often hem and haw and mumble something about it and basically look away because I knew – I knew! – that they all thought of photography as the unwanted stepchild or the third-class citizen of the art world. Though, after hanging out more with other types of artists and other people struggling with their own creativity, almost all of them thought the same thing about themselves and their chosen creativity. Even if they were painters, sculptors, fabric artists, or writers. Each had their own doubts about the work they were doing and the ‘field’ they chose to be in. Saying things like, “Oh, I just dabble a bit.” And, “I’m not a real artist like…” Then they point to someone else in the group. Who I happen to know said the same thing the other day to me, pointing at the person I’m talking to. Crazy, right?
“Mushrooms of Hitchcock Woods”
This got me thinking more about photographers and how we look at ourselves and the way we express ourselves with a camera as something less. How often do we look at photography as the “art of last resort”? The one form that basically anyone with half a brain can manage? Heck, anyone with a phone can do it. So how can what we do be art?
Getting back to the Harry Potter concept, could it be, that the art – the muse – chooses the artist? That the best way for that art to be expressed is by the people doing it? Could it be that we did not choose photography because we could not do other types of art, but that the muse of photography chose us because we have something to say that is best done with a camera, a phone, a computer?
How often, even in these same conversations where we downplay our work, we also express the feeling that we are “compelled to photograph”. Some people, like me, get a very physical, and sometimes emotional, response when we see something we want to photograph. So how can we be that unwanted stepchild, when we have such a strong force pushing and pulling us to be expressed?
“Vaucluse Pond in Winter”
I’ve heard many stories from photographers who went to extreme measures to get an image. Some have planned for hours, days and sometimes years to get a photo they thought was the best they could possibly create. How many of you have been out in the field, in the studio, and/or at the computer and you are completely immersed in act of taking what’s in your head and giving it some type of form? That state of creativity doesn’t come easily or all the time, though, it does come with effort. And whatever amount of effort you are putting forth, it does call out to something beyond ourselves. Whatever you want to call it, the muses/the source/god/the universe, it doesn’t really waste too much time and effort with those that are not actively working to create something.
And by creating, we are drawing closer to it, and it is drawing closer to us. And you may even be thinking, you didn’t start as early as someone else. Or that you getting your first camera, paint brush, sketch pad, coloring book, journal, whatever, was some type of fluke. And the only real reason you are doing what it is you are doing is because that was the only thing that you had at hand to create with. But was it just a fluke that somehow this “thing” came to you at the time it did? You might have been a kid when a family member left you something when they passed. Or in middle age when a friend gifted it to you almost out of nowhere. Or in retirement when you opened a program guide for classes at a local art center, and you “randomly” picked something.
“Lifecycle of a Hosta”
It doesn’t matter how long you have been doing what you do, or how good or bad you think your work is. As long as you are creating, take some pride that you are an artist and have just as much of a right to call yourself that as anyone else.
I’ve started to make the effort, and I hope you all do too, that we proudly talk about being photographers. Because that creative force saw something in us that it knew we would be able to help it express itself better as well. That we believe we have a rightful place at the creative table because the art chose us!
Thanks and keep creating what you do.
Patrick Krohn
December 2025
“Dogwood Ascending”