In the latest installment of his Aesthetics and Photography series over on Luminous Landscape, Alain Briot considers being an artist as opposed to just being a photographer.

“We live in a world that fosters the technical rather than the artistic, the mechanical rather than the organic and a financial rather than a mechanistic approach.  Art goes against all of that.  While it can have a technical aspect, such as digital photography has, art is eventually about expressing yourself, about what inspires you, about sharing your view of the world with others.  What medium you use, as well as all the technical intricacies of this medium, eventually fade away when compared with the message expressed in your work.  Who knows the size of the chisels used by Michael Angelo and whether they were made of hardened steel, Damascus steel, or some other metal.  Only experts know which film Ansel Adams used to create Moonrise, Hernandez, NM.  I am sure you can find additional examples to further this argument.  If you can you know how little people will care10 years from now about whether you used Microdrives or Compact Flash cards to store your Raw files.  Case closed.”

Website: Luminous Landscape - Aesthetics and Photography - Being an Artist