I am an Amateur photographer!

History sometimes yields interesting facts. One of such is that a while back Amateur would be a compliment to a photographer. From French amateur "lover of", this meant a photographer who does photography for the love of it (as opposed to professional who does it for the money).

Henri Cartier-Bresson in his famous essay “The Decisive Moment” writes: “I still regard myself as an amateur: but a dilettante I certainly am not." Somehow over time amateur has become an equivalent of dilettante. So let’s restore its original meaning. And I’ll do it first by stating:

I’m an Amateur photographer because I’m doing photography for no other reason but the love of it.