Ethics in Photography: The Hidden Artistry

There are literally millions of photographers around the world. If you want proof, ask the camera brands. There are probably hundreds of thousands that we can say are better than the rest but never can we say that there is truly one “Best photographer of the world.” There are indeed alot of masters of the craft. Masters of their own specific fields that we simply can’t compare because of their different branches of photography. However, tie breaker would be based not on their creativity but who they are as a photographer.

The Inspiring Artist

It’s one thing to be a skilled photographer, it’s another thing to be an INSPIRING ARTIST. Through various shoots, events or forums, we see so many people with amazing photographs and yet some of the seem to think that they are elite and that not many people deserve to be graced by their presence. (Narcissism in fact, is widespread in the arts.) They seem as if they think that regular people don’t deserve to converse with them and it’s just pathetic. It makes one lose a considerable amount of the admiration that was initially there. That sets them apart.

The Inspiring Mentor

It’s one thing to be a skilled photographer, it’s another thing to be an INSPIRING MENTOR. Hundreds of workshops out there are going around the social media aiming to be promoted (especially here in the Philippines.) There are two things to consider when one sees such a poster online. First is “is the person credible enough to teach what he’s offering?” Many photographers nowadays seem to think that creating one good photograph entitles them into being credible enough to earn money out of teaching a certain technique. The sad thing about it is, more often, they are not and it only leads to a “Blind leading the blind” phenomenon. The students waste money and time for something they could have learned online. Or worse, they waste time and money for something they learned wrong.

Transactional or Transformational?

The other question is “Does the person teach for the sake of inspiring or simply just for the money?” This is a more invisible aspect of teaching photography. Again in the context of workshops and teachers, the student will actually have difficulty identifying the intention of the teacher especially if it his first time attending a workshop. It all actually boils down to one thing; making sure that the student was able to do what he was taught and making sure that he will be able to do it continuously. Does the teacher CORRECT MISTAKES or simply point them out? Simply put, is the teacher TRANSACTIONAL or TRANSFORMATIONAL? Price isn’t even a factor if the teacher is transformational. The mere thousands that a student would pay for a workshop with an inspiring mentor is reciprocated not just within the one or two days that he is taught but rather continuously as the student applies and reinvents what he has learned from his great mentors.

There are countless more points to tackle about ethics in photography that dive into each individual field and would take weeks to write about (not really planning to write a book) but these above are pretty much those that deal with photographer to photographer (peer) relations and those of teachers and their students.

In retrospect, no one really has to teach anyone to become ethical in dealing with peers or any other person for that matter. If you’re not stepping on anyone, If you’re not exploiting anyone, you’re pretty much on the right track.

Thanks for reading!