What is photography? It’s a big question, and one that you will likely have your own personal thoughts about. In the literal sense though, it’s a relatively straight forward answer:

A Photograph is a ‘Light Drawing’; and the word Photography means ‘to draw with light’.

This isn’t opinion, it is the literal translation of the original word. The word first coined by Sir John Hershal circa 1839 which was derived from the Greek words ‘Phos’, which means light, and ‘Graphé’, which translates as drawing. So a photograph is a light drawing. And thinking about how a camera works, it makes complete sense really. The film/sensor is the canvas and the light is the ink. But does knowing this really matter?

Well I think it does. So much so that, now I have started to offer photography workshops again (YEY!!), I have incorporated this translation into the first module of all of the beginner-novice group workshops we offer (on sale now here). In fact, I think it is so important that it will likely also feature in the (soon to be announced) novice-hobbyist workshops too.

Why? Because it is my belief that understanding this basic fundamental of photography can immediately make you a better photographer.

How so?

Well, every image ever captured by way of a camera did the first part of photography really well: it captured light and produced an image of that moment in time. And, without understanding, you may think that that’s it, nothing more…..your work here is done!

But it is in the second half of the word photograph that the key is held, if you are looking create more than just a ‘photo!’…..

And I purposely use the term ‘photo’ here. You see, in the era of digital photography (and certainly now that high quality mobile phone cameras are carried everywhere, ready to snap at a seconds notice), there has been a rise in photographers using different terms to describe photography. You’ll no doubt have heard someone using the term ‘snapshot’ or possibly using the phrase ‘it’s just a photo/snapshot’.

Well, whilst these slang terms for photography have been around for a long time, over the last 20 years they have started to become a description of the image itself. ‘Snapshot’ or ‘photo’ are now commonly used to describe images with no (or minimal) artistic intent*. Shots taken without real purpose.

Back in the days of film, there was less inclination to take a shot without purpose. It was so darn expensive, each exposure cost money. But of course now, once we have our initial equipment, there is no added (immediate) cost to any of us. Whether we take one shot or one hundred. And this has brought rise to millions, if not billions of images being captured each day (over 1000 uploads to Instagram per second - 86 million per day!…..and that’s just Instagram).

And so, pretentiousness aside, there probably is a need to have some differentials. Surely not all of those images could possibly have had artistic intent in the truest sense of the word photography?

Let’s face it, we can all pick up a pencil, grab a piece of paper and draw something. But would we then consider ourselves artists? Would we consider that drawing a ‘work of art’? Probably not. It’s a drawing, and there may well have been some artistic intent in it, but is it art? Or is it a sketch…possibly a doodle?

Unless we are serious about our drawings we are unlikely to call them art. But everybody who can point a digital camera at something gets to refer to the ensuing image as photography!

So, we go back to that literal translation in order to start to understand one of the key fundamentals of photography as more than just a ‘snapshot’.

If all you are doing is capturing light with your camera sensor, and negating the ‘drawing’ or art part of the medium, then there is no reason for adding the ‘graph’. The art of photography is contained within the second half of the word. Graph: The drawing. The choosing of how you want the light that you are capturing to look. How you want it to be captured on your camera sensor/film. How you present it through the medium of your image.

So we cover it in our workshops as this fundamental idea can make you think about how you wield your camera rather differently. You can start to look at the light differently. And by doing so, you can then start to choose how the camera sees the light; you can start to choose how you will translate that light from the 3d world onto your 2D canvas; you can sculpt with it.

So this immediately helps you become a better photographer. By taking that translation, by considering it, and by applying it, you have immediately added some artistry, you have added intent, you have begun your drawing.

Your journey from capturing snaps to creating art has begun.

You can book your workshop with us by clicking here

Dave Laffan

Let’s Click Photography.

*It is important to note that journalists and documentarians have been capturing images in this way since the very first camera, and rightly so too. Art is not a requirement for the capturing of a fleeting moment in time or historical event. For example, the journalists that documented the storming of the Capitol building in Washington (U.S.A.) in 2020, did not have time (or reason) to wait for the right light to pass overhead…..the angry mob were not waiting for photographers to find a nice leading line or to study the shadows falling over the ground. There is nothing wrong in documenting a moment in time without artist concern, if that is the requirement of that moment. Although in choosing to put aside the artistic intent, one could argue that it becomes artistic through that choice ;)