Why is photography language SO violent??

I’m a Southern NH family, high school senior, and branding/portrait photographer. This post gets more views on Google than any other blog post on my website. “Violent language” is a hot topic these days and our words matter, so even though I wrote this in 2022 and it only tangentially relates to my offers, I’m keeping it up!

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My mission to change it.

Why is the language of photography so harsh, extractive, violent even? For example: Headshot. Photo shoot. Take/get/shoot a photo. I was curious about it, so I did a little research. According to Wikipedia, early film (video) cameras had a hand-crank mechanism similar to machine guns of the same era; a camera operator would “shoot” film the same way a machine gun operator would “shoot” their gun. 

Finding the explanation behind headshot is harder, but the term started in the acting & modeling industry, so the origin isn’t hard to imagine. If a camera operator “shot” images, then it’s easy to imagine how someone started calling a photo of an actor or model from the shoulders up a “headshot.”

There’s also all of the terminology around taking photos (vs. making). Taking implies a transfer of ownership, and can have extractive, power-oriented overtones. It’s also a distinctly American way of talking about photography (sidebar: don’t get me started on the history & experience of violence in America and how it infiltrates so much of our culture today). Case in point: in at least several European languages, for example, they use “make” instead of “take”, as in, “can I make your portrait?”.

My mission

Not one to shy away from challenging tasks, I’m on a mission to change the way we talk about photography in America, away from an extractive, forceful, and even violent vocabulary to a more inclusive, collaborative one. Here’s a quick cheat sheet for the most common terms:

• Portrait, not headshot

  Instead of “headshot”, use portrait, professional portrait, LinkedIn portrait, actor/modeling portrait, business portrait

• Photo session, not photo shoot

  Instead of “photo shoot,” try photo session, collaboration, photography project, work, etc.

• Make photos, not take photos

  Instead of “take photos,” use make, create, or collaborate on photos.

• Client, not subject

  Instead of “subject,” which has unfair power dynamics at its core, use model, collaborator, client, or talent.

I’m not alone in this or original in my idea: Carolyn Fong first inspired me to it and Diversify Photo has a much more comprehensive list that’s especially helpful for photographers. It may seem like a small thing, but I firmly believe that our words have implications (positive and negative). Being thoughtful and intentional about how I talk about the work I do is my first step towards a more inclusive, collaborative world.