Quote from Nadar
From the mid 19th Century - Nadar was reacting to the rapid increase of Parisian portrait studios cranking out carte de visites but it applies to today's rapid influx of smartphone photographers as well: "The theory of photography can be learned in one hour; the basic practice in one day. This much can be learned… which means that anyone, without exception, can safely aspire to call himself a photographer by tomorrow at the latest. I am going to tell you what cannot be learned: it's a feel for light-it's the artistic appreciation of the effects produced by various qualities of lading alone or combined-it's the application of this or that affect according to the nature of the physiognomy that as an artist you aim to reproduce. What is even less likely to be learned is the moral intelligence of your subject-the rapid tact that puts you in communion with your model… and allows you to give… a more familiar and favorable resemblance, the intimate resemblance-that's the psychological aspect of photography..."