Are photographers the most argumentative people within the creative industries? I think so! I’ve worked with designers, journalists, writers, fashion designers, actors, musicians, make-up artists, hairdressers, and stylists to name just a few and none of them argue amongst themselves in my experience as much as photographers. I’m not talking about big beef’s and PR instigated rivalries, but constant sniping and unpleasantness. Why is this?

Surely, it can’t be based on the idea of formal education versus the self-taught path. They are both valid journey’s common to all areas of creative expression. Could it be due to the solitary nature of the photographer? Maybe. Is it based on an unhealthy amount of time spent in front of a computer screen? An unhealthy amount of time with nothing to do? Possibly. Is it due to different areas of practice not always respecting each other? I think that is part of it. Insecurity is definetly, in my opinion, an issue. However, this argument is rarely if ever about a photograph. Occasionally it is about a photographer, but that is usually based on a lack of understanding. Perhaps resentment. The majority of arguing is based on labels, approach, workflows and definitions. None of which really matters.

Photography is too important to argue over. The images coming out of the USA at the moment are proof of that. As are those that have recently come out of the Ukraine and Gaza. These are our new history and need to be respected as such. These are images that are unconfined by the rule of thirds or the golden triangle. They do not need to be labelled as editorial, portrait, reportage or photo-journalism. The cameras used are of no relevance. The photographers do not need to spend hours in post-production smoothing, colour balancing or creating a fake reality. They are what they are, authentic messages from the frontlines.

That for me is photography in its purest form. The photographers who make these images are focused on the truth that photography can deliver. Not pointless arguments on social media. Perhaps it’s the subject matter that prevents these photographers from engaging in pointless, shallow arguing. If you are making images of consequence it could be reasonably construed that your intentions are not constrained by purely aesthetic outcomes and the noise that surrounds them. Maybe this is the real root of the photographic communities love of disagreement. If you are more interested in the process than the outcome, more interested in the practice than the message then perhaps you are more easily annoyed when either are challenged.

If I am right then the answer in how to stop the arguing is simple for all photographers to implement. Focus on photographs, not photographing, make images that have a reason to exist outside of aesthetic pleasure and enjoy the success of others. Simple to say. Let’s see if it’s simple to do.

Further Reading
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2021/08/06/there-is-no-need-for-photo-tribes/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2025/09/22/photography-today-is-a-toxic-siloed-matrix-and-thats-not-good/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2023/11/09/do-photographers-need-photographer-friends/

Image: © David Guttenfelder, Minniapolis 2026

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8 magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, (Orphans Publishing 2024). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2026