That's an interesting take, but I think the argument itself is flawed. Before we can know if the gear matters, the question has to be answered: for what?
If I have a burning and unceasing desire to express myself artistically through photography, then the gear does not matter. If there was nothing else available I could still throw a roll of expired colour film that's been sitting on the dashboard of a car into my forty-year-old Yashica and then develop it in borax and dishwater – or do the modern equivalent, called 'Instagram' – and find a way to express myself with it. If the passion is great and the equipment is modest, passion will still drive art.
But once the standards rise above fixing a permanent image, then of course the gear becomes important. I have so many different cameras and lenses specifically because they each allow me to do something better than the others – I have three different
tripods because they do some things better than the others. To argue that "it's the photographer that matters, not the camera" is to profoundly misstate what being a photographer involves.
And for what it's worth, yes, other arts and professions are just as powerfully centred around tools as photography is. A quick perusal of Penny's jewellery bench turned up five hammers, seven pliers, and six tweezers, and she works with a fairly small range of materials. Painters care deeply about brushes, and choosing a brush or a palette knife makes a huge difference to the results. And yes, Carpenters are very picky about hammers, too.
(Apr 25, 2012, 13:40)slejhamer Wrote: Heck, for the vast majority of camera users, composition and light don't matter!
This may be the best response I've seen.
