I am not an artist, am I?

From Aristotle and Plato to Arthur C. Danto and Gustavo Bueno, a great number of philosophers and thinkers have tried to unravel the mystery behind such an apparently simple concept as "Art".

Nowadays, with the preponderance of so-called "conceptual" art, basically anything can be considered a work of art. The only condition seems to be that next to it there is a text, as cryptic as possible, in which the "artist" describes the meaning and intention of his work. In this context, that other eternal debate on whether photography is art or not seems to have been overcome by the dynamics of the times.

I also add descriptions to the photographs I publish on this website. However, these descriptions are not intended to explain the photograph in question to the people who are going to look at it, but to the search engine robots. I aspire for my photographs to be expressive enough by themselves that they do not need to be explained. In this sense, I feel closer to the concept of a craftsman than an artist. But if I had to define myself, if I were forced under threat to define the work I do, I would say that what I do is basically photocopy the reality that comes my way and, perhaps, through that photocopy tell a story or convey a feeling or sensation.

What did some famous photographers say when they were inevitably asked about this subject? Let's see:

"I'm Helmut. I'm not an artist. What I'm doing is not art. I'm just taking pictures." Helmut Newton

"I'm not an artist; I'm a copier of time”. Daido Moriyama

"I'm not an artist, I’ve been struggling against that word all my life. I’m a photographer and I stand by it." Don McCullin

"I am not an artist. An artist creates an object. I work with stories; I am a storyteller". Sebastião Salgado

"I’m not an artist. I’m an image maker." Thomas Hoepker

"I am not an artist. I am a photographer who makes testimonies, and I try to show them, when I can, to the people around me". Graciela Iturbide

"I'm not an artist who happens to use photography. I'm a photographer who uses the camera as my medium." Martin Parr

"I've always been a photographer, not an artist." Ramón Masats

"I think of myself as a conceptual artist using photography." Annie Leibovitz

Do you consider yourself a photographer or an artist? "Again the damn question. I was educated in an artists' academy, so I'm an artist. It's simple." Thomas Ruff