Amateur photography

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image sequence by an amateur photographer at Wikimedia
Amateur photographer in architectural photography
Amateur photographers photographing wild animals on the Chobe River / Botswana (2018)
Photo workshop at night

Amateur photography is the creation of photographic recordings as a leisure activity or aid for a hobby , i.e. without the intention of making a profit or as a minor sideline of a profession, for example for documentation.

classification

Dedicated photo amateurs do not have regular photographic training , but have acquired technology and practice autodidactically , in courses or at workshops. However, there are also career changers among photographers, especially in the field of wedding , reportage and press photography , which means that they work full-time without having completed regular training as a photographer .

In terms of photographic quality, a distinction between professional and amateur photographers is critical. Although there are a number of photographs by amateurs that do not meet certain quality criteria (e.g. sharpness, composition, exposure, etc.), the quality of work by committed amateur photographers can hardly be distinguished from work by professionals.

In principle, amateur photographers dedicate themselves to all genres of photography.

Aspects

Photography as a hobby or leisure activity

The " photographic amateur " carries out an activity that neither has to meet objective quality criteria nor serves to secure a livelihood. Amateur photography is a time-consuming and cost-intensive hobby , the fans of which organize themselves in clubs and in which competitions are held.

Some amateur photographers market their most successful recordings for picture archives or local newspapers , which puts them in a gray area between amateur and professional photography. This is where the essential difference between amateur and professional lies: an amateur photographer can take good pictures and market them, a professional photographer must deliver good pictures in any case.

Smartphones have made amateur photography very relevant today, if only because of the sheer volume. Pictures can be taken with a smartphone without having to carry any special photographic equipment. The advantage is also the inconspicuousness. This sub-area also developed strongly due to the internet-based social media , where images can be uploaded. Classic entry-level digital cameras are rarely in demand, as smartphone cameras are getting better and better. While the market segment for digital cameras has been declining in recent years, smartphones are now the most popular image source.

The term clippers is intended to denote photographers who typically take snapshots without knowledge or interest in photo technology or image design . The expression "clippers" is also used by committed amateurs with a negative connotation in order to distance themselves clearly from their photographic undemanding nature.

Photography for documentation in the context of professional practice

An essential part of amateur photography is the use of photography by amateurs without specific training as part of a profession, usually for pure documentation purposes. The reasons are usually that taking photos is not an essential part of the professional task and that professional knowledge is much more important than knowledge of photography. Examples:

  • Documentation and evidence of traffic accidents by police officers
  • Photography at police, customs, intelligence services
  • Photograph of conspicuous demonstrators by police officers
  • Documentation of structures by building owners, architects or building planners
  • Documentation of excavations by archaeologists
  • Documentation for building security by civil engineers (e.g. dams, bridges, mines, dikes, etc.)
  • Documentation in science
  • Documentation in ethnology
  • Documentation in space travel
  • Documentation in art
  • Documentation by customer service technicians and craftsmen .

  • Documentation of an excavation in 2012 in archeology

  • Inspection camera case

  • US Navy soldier inspecting a component with an endoscopic camera

  • December 24th, 1968: The first picture of the rise of the earth above the lunar horizon, taken by Bill Anders

  • Eugene Cernan in the Challenger after the last spacewalk, recorded by Harrison Schmitt

Photography as a witness of the times

Amateur photography is often an important testimony to the times. Possible aspects are:

  • Amateur photographs are of great importance in a historical context. Such recordings are interesting as evidence for building historians or historians.
  • Amateur photographs of soldiers are also important witnesses of the time that were photographed past propaganda filtering, to which the military often responded with a photography ban.
  • Amateur photographs without artistic character have a special meaning for historiography and sociology , as they document precisely what artistic recordings and images of the mass media only reproduce in a filtered form: the more or less authentic private and cultural environment of the amateur photographer and the perspective of the photographer wants to show you and your environment.
  • Illustration potential: amateur photographs of importance as documents for inclusion in Wikimedia or Wikipedia. Pictures from amateurs in publicly accessible picture archives (Photo Stocks, Wikimedia etc.) are used by the tourism industry and industry.
  • Museums and exhibitions also use photographic work by amateurs.
  • Media and television show z. B. Recordings of amateurs on weather phenomena or for use in local reporting.

Photography in niches of interest

In general, in the field of amateur photography you can find everything in photo motifs that can be photographed with the equipment used. This also includes numerous motifs that are not taken by professional photographers because of their rarity, the private context (e.g. sports club) or because professional photographers cannot be hired for this. Amateur photography is often used as a support to pursue an actual hobby.

backgrounds

Context and valuation

"Perhaps the true, total photography [...] is a heap of fragments of private pictures, against the crumpled background of the destruction and the coronations"

- Italo Calvino , 1957.

Sociological studies in the tradition of Pierre Bourdieu assume that amateur photography is aimed at ensuring and promoting family cohesion; Authors like Susan Sontag adopt this point of view largely unreflected, but the photo historian Timm Starl vehemently contradicts it.

Motivations

Image taken by an amateur astronomer of the galaxy NGC 4103
Amateur shot of a lightning strike

The reasons to devote yourself to amateur photography are extremely diverse. Examples:

  • Amateur photography as a job-related sideline without any special remuneration as a hobby
  • Amateur photography as a general interest in the world (e.g. weather, nature, environment, flora and fauna)
  • Amateur photography as an archive and document in the sense of photojournalism
  • Amateur photography as an archive and document of one's own life (e.g. family, travel, clubs, hobbies, etc.)
  • Amateur photography as a technical learning curve through to participation in photo competitions
  • Amateur photography as an independent image document without media or propaganda filters
  • Amateur photography as part of an actual hobby (e.g. astronomy, travel, collections, mountaineering, etc.).

Economical meaning

Amateurs are an important target group for the photo industry, as their demand is much greater than that of the group of professional photographers. Global sales of digital cameras reached 3.9 billion euros in the first half of 2018. For Germany it was 345 million euros. The largest share of this is likely to come from the demand of amateur photographers. Cost-intensive new developments in the industry are largely generated from the mass market of amateur photography. However, the industry can only successfully sell digital cameras if the range of functions clearly exceeds that of a smartphone camera.

There is also a market for training ambitious amateurs in courses and workshops, which are mostly offered by professional photographers .

History and Development

The development of amateur photography is closely related to the development of photo technology and the camera.

Early days of the pioneers

The amateur photography was parallel to the development of photography in the 1840s; and many notable early photographers were amateur photographers .

The differentiation of amateur photography was accelerated primarily by three factors that simplified photography :

  1. The development of handheld cameras from the 1870s
  2. The development of fast lenses
  3. The invention of the gelatine drying plate by Richard Leach Maddox and the combination with interchangeable or double cassettes and plate magazines , which made it possible to change plates in daylight without a protective tent.

A common camera design at the end of the 19th century was the so-called student apparatus , a simple camera with an inexpensive landscape lens that, like the contemporary secret cameras , still used glass plates as recording material. The first German-language manual for amateurs by Haugk and Wilde dates from 1881 ( detailed instructions on how to easily and safely learn photography with the new, extremely sensitive and durable gelatine emulsion plates without detailed specialist studies. For tourists [...] and Everyone who wants to take photographs [...] for pleasure ).

In this phase, size, weight and preparation time placed enormous restrictions on photography, which is why one can only speak of very isolated amateurs.

First mass distribution (handheld camera and roll film)

Amateur photography in the narrower sense begins around 1888 with the establishment of the first industrially manufactured and mass-widespread handheld cameras such as the Kodak No. 1 . From this point on, photography had become easier and more mobile thanks to roll film , compact cameras and convenient handling in order to attract new customer groups. George Eastman pushed the roll film through as a mass product against the resistance of the retail trade in the market. Those who had exposed their roll film could send the camera and film to Kodak and a little later received the prints and a camera equipped with fresh film back. This was one of the main reasons why photography became increasingly popular from the turn of the century.

The situation of amateur photographers, their importance for the formation of taste, their artistic goals and their most important subject, the natural landscape, was described by the important museum man Alfred Lichtwark in a programmatic paper from 1894.

The normalization and standardization of photographic equipment and fine printing processes from the beginning of the 20th century further promoted acceptance and dissemination. Initially, mainly simple medium format cameras - the so-called box cameras - were used . Amateur photography received a further boost from the development of color photography and camera-integrated exposure metering from the mid- 1930s . During this time, numerous periodicals for amateur photographers such as "Die Leica" , "Perutz -teilungen " and "Der Satrap " were created. Photography became “a grassroots movement, even if it was supported by big business” .

Workers' photography was of particular importance in the 1920s and 1930s, as it was politically committed photography with documentary and social demands; Heinrich Zille's photographic works can also be seen in this context . The Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ) published numerous social reports and, with a circulation of 1.5 million, not only reached photo amateurs.

Second mass dissemination (35mm camera technology)

The second mass spread was initiated by color film and the 35mm camera : the first three-layer films were brought onto the market in 1936 by Agfa and immediately afterwards by Kodak . In principle , color films still function according to this process today. The 35mm camera, originally by Optischen Werke Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, presented as the legendary Leica in 1925 with a 50 mm standard lens as a viewfinder camera , became an important impetus for the spread of amateur photography. Carl Zeiss , Canon and other manufacturers followed suit. The first 35mm SLR camera was also introduced by Kine Exakta in 1936 . The 35 mm cameras with an image format of 24 mm × 36 mm completely changed the acceptance in amateur photography. The compact camera technology could now be used in any location with little effort: on trips, for family photos, at Christmas, at Easter, on birthdays, for documentation, as a photographic aid for a hobby or nature experience. In the pre-war period of the 1930s, photography for amateurs became very popular. Through the lens he saw what he had acquired, what was now present around him, bodily and objectively. The flood of images was tamed in photo albums, which were arranged chronologically or according to events, in order to recall moods or experiences. Pierre Bourdieu said: Amateur photographers are "seasonal conformists" because they are interested in the highlights of their own lives.

Even if the equipment wasn't cheap, it was affordable if you wanted to do your hobby more intensively. Numerous amateurs of that time also took their cameras with them when they went to war as soldiers. In general, the fact that 35mm technology was widespread made cameras and films much cheaper, while lenses remained comparatively expensive due to the high effort involved.

Third mass distribution (innovations in analog photography)

In the post-war decades, the amateur photography market was supplied with photo-technical devices specially designed for simple and uncomplicated handling; Of particular note are the Instamatic camera , the Polariod technology and the pocket camera . The instant camera in particular now expanded its target groups to include amateurs without any affinity for photo technology. The increasing travel of the post-war period is likely to have inspired the amateurs not insignificantly; where you have been you need photos as evidence for those who stayed at home. The vacation became the ultimate photo motif. The spread of slide films also changed the presentation technique: 35mm slides were combined into a slide show and viewed together.

In addition to American providers of cameras and films such as Kodak or German providers such as Carl Zeiss, Leica, Vogtländer , Agfa and many others, the market was increasingly supplied by products from Japan. After the war, numerous Japanese companies increasingly turned to civilian products, including the manufacture of cameras, lenses and films (e.g. Fuji ). From the 1950s onwards , electrical elements found their way into photo cameras and many other innovations for exposure measurement or automation, which originated very much from Japanese industry. Japanese providers such as Nikon , Olympus , Pentax or Minolta (the first 35mm SLR camera with autofocus) aimed primarily at amateurs ensure an enormous increase in the number of amateurs. Approx. From the 1970s onwards , the " Made in Japan " seal on photo-optical or photo-chemical products was given a good, later innovative name, and the Japanese market shares grew enormously thanks to amateur photography.

At the end of the analog age around the year 2000, Japanese suppliers were dominant in many fields of products for photography.

Fourth mass proliferation (the digital revolution)

From the 2000s onwards, digital photography changed the demand: The digital cameras made it possible to take photos without the effort and expense of negatives or slides. The market was dominated by providers such as Nikon and Canon. Storage and archiving were also significantly simplified. The Internet also made it possible for pictures to be taken by amateurs. Particularly noteworthy is the digital image processing: By using tools comparable to those used by professional photographers, amateurs today can significantly increase the quality or the effect of their images.

The market for simple digital cameras is currently falling because they are being displaced by smartphones. The high-end segment, just below the top-of-the-line products for professional photographers, easily compensates for this as demand from the amateurs for the industry. The digital tools ensure a tremendous flood of images and a broad interest, with an enormous range of objects but also qualities.

Quotes

“Let me draw your attention to one of the most popular misconceptions about photography - the misconception that you classify outstanding work or what you think is a professional one and use the term amateur for all immature or miserable photographs. The fact of the matter is that pretty much all important work comes and came from people who take photos for the love of their work, not for financial reasons. As the name suggests, the amateur works out of love for the subject, and in the face of this, the untenability of this popular distinction must become evident. "

- Alfred Stieglitz

Aesthetics of amateur photography

Of course, there is no mandatory aesthetic of amateur photography. If anything, it was always influenced by the fashionable tastes of the time, perhaps also by technology. How one should take photos, however, has always been formulated in terms of prohibitions that affect technology: not blurred, not crooked, not unnatural or unrealistic, not cropping, not photographing against the light, not unfavorable, not unbalanced lighting. Criteria which, if adhered to, the amateur is no clippers, but is considered to be competent. There are also criteria that, for good reasons, do not apply in professional press photography or photojournalism . In artistic photography , these criteria are sometimes even considered a knockout criterion . The Lomography or HDR photography postulate such errors even as a new aesthetic of amateur photography. The only permissible definition of an aesthetic would be: The amateur is " an autonomous artist, his interpretations, imagery and visual language. Or the attempt at it. "

Organizations and associations

Many photo amateurs organize themselves in photo clubs; this form of organization emerged at the end of the 19th century when it became possible to reproduce photographic images in mass media using the autotype . These associations met in private or public spaces, held exhibitions and lectures , published books and magazines and occasionally even had their own libraries .

The American Annual of Photography lists around 500 such associations in 1893, some of which still exist today. The most famous amateur photo clubs include:

Even today, photo clubs still have a certain importance for photo amateurs as associations with cultural and political influence.

literature

  • Pierre Bourdieu et al. a .: Un art moyen. Essai sur les usages sociaux de la photographie . 1965 (German translation. An illegitimate art. The social uses of photography . Frankfurt am Main 1981). ISBN 3-434-46162-0
  • Ulrich Hägele: Visual Folklore , 2001.
  • Ulrich Hägele: Visual transmission of the popular , 1997.
  • Douglas Harper: Visual Sociology: An Introduction (Photographs as Social Science Data), 2012, ISBN 978-0415778954 .
  • Susan Sontag : About Photography . (German translation from On Photography by Susan Sontag. 1977). ISBN 3-596-23022-5 .
  • Timm Starl: Clippers. The visual history of private photography in Germany and Austria from 1880 to 1980 . Munich; Berlin: Koehler & Amelang, 1995. ISBN 3-7338-0200-4 .
  • Vilém Flusser: For a Philosophy of Photography , European Photography, 2018, ISBN 978-3923283484 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Photo market in numbers. Accessed January 4, 2020 (German).
  2. ↑ Infographic: Digital cameras are selling less and less. Retrieved January 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Andrew Chaikin: Who Took the Legendary Earthrise Photo From Apollo 8? In: The Smithsonian Institution (Ed.): Smithsonian Magazine . tape 2018 , January, January 2018, ISSN  0037-7333 (American English, smithsonianmag.com [accessed January 19, 2019]).
  4. ↑ a b c Salim Butt: History of Photography. In: https://www.planet-wissen.de/ . WDR, July 26, 2019, accessed on January 27, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Alfred Lichtwark : The importance of amateur photography. Hall 1894.
  6. ↑ Boris von Brauchitsch: A short history of photography . Reclam, 2001, ISBN 978-3-15-010502-3 , pp. 110 .
  7. ↑ a b c d DER SPIEGEL: Amateur Photography - DER SPIEGEL - History. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .