Originally posted by OregonJim Edit: That's not to say all other writing is not important, or not beautiful. It's just not calligraphy.
I think my analogy is appropriate. Writing is the genre, calligraphy is the specialty. Photography is the genre, and ONE CERTAIN APPROACH to photography is the specialty. That ONE CERTAIN APPROACH might be called MetaStudioWork (or KameraWerk, in homage to Stieglitz), which includes viewing the world as an unwalled studio. It's a fine approach, just not the only approach to photography, writing-with-light.
(Oops. Stieglitz's CAMERA WORK images were often heavily doctored. Bother. Maybe the purist approach should be called RawKameraWerk.)
But to consider ONE CERTAIN APPROACH as the only 'real' photography easily leads to a holy war, as in: self-identified Xians who don't follow my specific dogma aren't
really Xians, are are thus inferior/damned/whatever. Et cetera. That's why I reject narrow labels, because they establish me-vs-the-unwashed dichotomies and other toxic relations, and a Dominant Heresy, and inquisitions, et al.
Again, people making their livings in photography and design just don't bother with such distinctions - they have to generate images, by whatever means necessary. When I worked as a photographer in the US Army, I wasn't told what NOT to do to make pictures. I had to produce the most usable images, which often meant considerable lab work. Dilettantism was not acceptable.
Now let's get back to snapping our shutters, eh?