For Lack of a Better Word
Graphic designers have it easy by comparison. They get to use words like ‘’create’ or ‘design’ or, at worst, ‘lay out’ when they refer to the act of their creative process. All of these words are fairly positive and evoke, at worst, neutral emotions. They appear to be artists and the language with which they describe their processes is artistic.
“Do you have a better word
than shoot, expose, capture,
acquire, or grab?”
Photographers on the other hand have to suffer with a list of negative words to describe their creative process. All of the words that describe the creation of an image on film or digital leave an uneasy feel in the back of my mind. Nefarious photographers, stalk, hound or trip shutters in secret with long lenses concealed by darkness, distance or numbers.
A Prisoner of Semantics
When a photographer talks about the inception of the creation of a photograph they use a very few specific words. To demonstrate these not-so-positive words, I am going to use a T-I-C conversation between a photographer and a soon-to-be photographic image to show you what I mean.
Photographer: I am going to capture that image.
Image: Help! I’ve been kidnapped.
Photographer: I mean, I am going to shoot this image.
Image: Help! I’ve been shot. Medic!
Photographer: No-no. I will expose you.
Image: Naked? I will be exposed. Are you some kinda pervert?
Photographer: That’s not what I meant. I will acquire you, electronically.
Image: Well, fellow images. I’ve just been told we were taken over without benefit of a personal visit from the corporate raider.
Photographer: Come on, all I did was fire a shutter.
Image: And that’s not all the shutter lost his job and we’re next in the acquisition hatchet-job.
Photographer: Maybe you could just let me frame you?
Image: I am not taking the rap for anybody.
Photographer: I’ve had it, I just need to grab this image.
Image: Well, watch where you grab then and be gentle about it.
Photographer: OK, This won’t hurt a bit. <Snap>
Image: Ouch! You’ve stolen my soulll…
I think by now you see what I mean. If there is a reasonably neutral word for the obtaining of an image through the process of using a camera, I am not certain what it would be. Though I searched the web diligently and cannot provide you with a reference for the following. I did recently read of a story of some photographers in India who were arrested for emailing about going ‘shooting’ the next day. The police misunderstood the context of the word ‘shoot’ and met the surprised Photogs at the location. Maybe it is an urban legend-but it reminds us to be cautious in proper use of language in describing what we are about to do.
So, readers, do you have a better word than shoot, expose, capture, acquire, or grab? If so, leave it in the comments and maybe we can help people realize all us photographers are not the shady, violent greedy characters that our image rustling makes us appear to be.
Rikk Flohr © 2008
September 12, 2010 at 10:28 am
I am “painting with light!” This is what photography means.
September 12, 2010 at 11:26 am
Your post made me smile.
), but will try anyway : in french we’d say something like “immortalize the moment” (unsure about the translation though…). Hope the image won’t care about being immortalized 
I don’t know if I can help with semantics (I’m french, after all
September 12, 2010 at 3:34 pm
I think Ruth Bernhard said it best:
“Never ever say the word shoot when you are taking a picture with a camera because a camera is not a violent weapon.”
I always catch my self saying “shoot” or “shot” in blog posts and reword it photograph or compose. Those are the best words I’ve come up with to date myself…
September 12, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I told someone that we take in life and document it. However in another sentence I wrote we capture the moment ..so i am lost as well when trying to describe what we do. I definitely do not like posting “great capture” when critiquing photos.
October 11, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I like to call it journaling life. I absolutely refuse to use the word capture because of it’s negative connotation and to know that others see it this way as well is a bit of a comfort to me. It shows that you appreciate photography as the portrayal of a particular vision created by an individual. I appreciate Laurent’s words as well….immortalizing the moment.
October 13, 2010 at 1:25 am
A photograph is the result from the action of “painting with the light”, and the word that make it sense for me is photographing.