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 p.3 #20 · Certified Professional Photographer | |
(Hopefully this won't come across as an angry rant, which it isn't. Just a brain dump of thoughts.)
This is such a fascinating topic, and one that has come up a few time in my social and business networking circles.
Some people that I talk with in my area feel that becoming certified is the only way to become a "successful photographer". They feel it is absolutely necessary to submit images that follow these specific guidelines and parameters to obtain a certification that, yes, they too are a "professional photographer" and have now been knighted to hang their shingle out alongside their other photographer brothers and sisters. I know one person who has told me that the only way I will ever succeed is by becoming a member, submitting to their jury process and see if I pass their tests.
Certification is for marketing. Don't forget, there is a reason why doctors and lawyers have all those framed diplomas on their office walls; to impress you. "His wall is full of framed things with official looking signatures from impressive looking places" clients and prospective clients say. "He *must* be good! He *must* be a master!" It brings traffic into your door. Having that "Master Certified Photographer" sticker in their door or on their website will attract people who are wooed by credentials.
Personally, I have newspaper articles, old gallery exhibition postcards and tear sheets of magazines I've been in hanging in my hallway outside my studio door. A few months ago I hung some newspaper clippings on my wall about how I proposed to my now Fiance by using Muppets, and people freak out over that. "Ohmigod! You're that guy that did that thing with puppets on the Internet!!" People like to be impressed. They like to see that they are being photographed not just by some normal joe, but someone that has "done something". Something worth hanging on your wall, or applying to your door. Certification by the PPA or CPP brings that. Add to that all the print competitions that you can enter with those groups. Suddenly you are a "Kodak Print Award Winner". How can that not look impressive? How can that not beat any other photographer in your area?
On the flip side, like David duChemin says in his book "Visionmongers": ". . . claims to be the best, the foremost, the favorite, or - God forbid - a master, are not only eyed with disbelief but with suspicion. If you have to say you're a master, you probably aren't."
But for all the pluses it seems like it might have, I can't help but feel there are hidden negatives. Or maybe they aren't hidden at all. I can't help but feel that you are loosing some of your personal style and identity by joining these groups. Right away, to become certified, you have to agree to lighting in a certain style, or adhering to specific rules. Not every photograph in life will be a 3:1 setup. Joining these large groups and getting mass-blasting emails covering current trends and hot topics is very much like buying into a franchise; you get the boutique studio setup, you start shooting what's hot in the current issue of Professional Photographer Magazine, etc. Simply on a basis of compromising your personal style and identity, I wouldn't want to join. Just because I use one light for some of my work means I'm not "up to par" with other photographers? I'm suddenly not good enough? Hardly. In the end, it should be about the work that you produce in your specific style and the acceptance that not everyone will like the work you produce.
Just like learning, everything varies. Some learned the craft of photography by reading books. Some learned the craft of photography by going to art college. Some learned in their basement darkroom. Others learned by assisting; there are a multitude of ways that you can be a professional photographer. If you want to join a specific group or not shouldn't make you as an artist and a crafts person feel any less devalued. The groups I want to avoid are the groups that want me to agree to do things a specific way; as an artist and a crafts person, my style takes precedent over everything else.
For me personally, I'm not lured by the temptation of joining what feels like a franchise operation. I'm not interested in agreeing to play by their rules as to what *they* think good work looks like. My clients, and the public decide what they like the second that they see something. We are not trying to go out there to please every person in the world esthetically, despite what people might tell you. Your clients are the ones that see you work, respond or have some sort of feeling about it, and walk in your door or pick up the phone and call you.
Regardless of if you are certified or not, we are all image makers, and we should all be supporting one another in the life and love of the craft of photography. 
Cheers,
Sid
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well... it has been an interesting one to say the least. I've had this topic on a few other forms and one thing which is common among all the conversations... we are a passionate bunch.