Professsional and amateur in photography has usually meant the person who makes money from their photography or has a career in it ( art or commercial) as opposed to someone who does photography as a hobby. But the rise of digital photography at an amateur level has a dynamic that leads to a 3G mobile phone network and increasingly powerful cameras in the phones The consequence is that people are abandoning the traditional film cameras, and in the next step are abandoning cameras altogether.

So does that mean those who work with traditional film cameras are now professional photographers? It has to be more than buying a Rolleiflex 6006 outfit from a retired commercial photography since the issues is one of aesthetics. the photo must look good as well give visual pleasure.

With is kind of cultural formation happening it may pay to concentrate on the functions to which photography is put. Amateur photography is about constructing personal mythologies through snapshots in the form of family and travel albums that are intrinsically linked with nostalgia, longing, and presenting the best view of ourselves.

So maybe it is moving beyond taking snaps to working on specific projects that is the new way of being seen as a professional as opposed to amateur?