I usually love the articles in the N.Y.Times but found this one insulting to female photographers. Seems some photographers refer to female portrait photographers who are Moms as "MWACs" (Moms with a camera)and think they are under cutting professional portrait photographers livelyhood by charging less. This is a another backlash against women.
There have always been GREAT women photographers who happen to be Mothers (Julia Margaret Cameron was probably the first!) but we shouldn't be stigmatized by our gender or roles as Moms.
You'd never think of someone calling a male photographer a Dad with a camera!
I think they're just jealous of all the incredible new and innovative work out there and can't stand all the new competition that digital photography has opened up!
3 Responses to “MWAC??”
You and me both, and I was interviewed for it! I was shocked at the way the article was "turned".
Sorry the truth hurts. It's obviously not aimed at ALL women photographers, it's aimed at stay at home mom's who take pictures (usually bad ones) of their children and suddenly think they are professional photographers because someone at their book club thinks a picture of little Joey peeing in a tub that they ran a filter on in Photoshop is just so cute. They've got nothing to lose either way seeing as their husband is already supporting the family, so they bring along their big expensive cameras(which they can barely use) and subsequently uncut professional photographers prices to the point they can't make a decent living anymore. Unfortunately, most people go with the cheapest thing(look no further than the proliferation of Walmart and their cheaply made Chinese goods), and not the best quality things. So I guess some of it falls on the market as well.
Still there was nothing wrong or outrightly against women in the article. You could put any father in there too, but I'd be willing to be there is a much larger populous of stay at home mothers than there is fathers.
While not a professional myself, I experience this MWAC phenomenon first hand on a weekly basis. I shutter to think...
i don't have any problems with a MWAC, but sometimes i do. i wont go into specifics, but one did specifically under cut my prices in order to pull business away from my studio. the problem here is that i actually run a business. i have marketing costs, i have insurance, i have a studio, i have all the costs that go into owning a legit business. a mwac doesn't have any of that, although they like to pretend they are pro by charging really low rates to all their friends. the biggest problem with it is that their rates are not sustainable as a business. they usually find this out quickly. but, they are in "business" long enough to create some damage.
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