Fashion Photography As A Career - Term Paper Example

Virtures in photography as a career Introduction Photography is one of the most passionate but dedicative careers. It entails a lot of creativity, taste and the ability to judge between attractive and the less attractive things. Fashion photography is a career field that requires more qualities rather than creativity and taste. It requires the ability to move in line with the emerging fashion trends and technology in order to take captions which are meaningful and attractive. Photography in itself is a method of passing information. In order to succeed in photography as a career, it is important to consider the essential virtues that motivate attractive displays in the fashion world. This document takes a deeper thought in understanding the virtues which are essential in fashion and design photography as a career. The three main virtues required in a fashion photography career are: patience, moral virtue and intellectual value. Generally, photography is aimed at delivering good materials which have creativity and attractive aspects. However, photographers ought to consider the moral values in their field of profession as photography is a method of passing information to a general public. In this case, fashion photographers ought to consider the drift between moral and immoral in their work. The essence of fashion photography is to capture the emerging trends of fashion and display them in a gallery for people to be enlightened by the growth in fashion and design in relation to technology changes. As technology advances, the mode of dressing changes and many communities in the world tend to abolish the ancient cultures. Many fashion photographers have used this notion to explain the trends of art with some relating the emerging trends of fashion and design to the Stone Age way of dressing. Fashion has takes different dimensions as time travels and people tend to deviate from morality affiliating moral values to the ancient culture. In this case, patience, positive thinking and tolerance become essential virtues in fashion photography as a career. Patience People often tend to rush in their career so as to attain the peak of their success at a tender age. Many photographers strive to be recognized thus do not consider moral ethical values in their work. In the current world, immorality is the simplest method of making business, for instant; many advertising commercials use photos and videos of half naked women to gain attention from the public. Fashion can also be categorized to this form of art as the emerging trends of fashion do not consider moral values inspired by traditional cultures and religious practices. Most photographers choose to venture into erotic caption as it is an easy way of obtaining income as well as advancing in their careers. Patience is a virtue that creates an atmosphere of good deeds with good intensions no matter the circumstance. In the book ‘Nicomachean Ethics’, Aristotle indicates that all human activities are aimed at achieving a good end result1. The goal of ethic is to determine how human beings attain their inner most desires. Virtues such as patience control the human desire of advancing quickly in life without considering the important life aspects such as the practice of good moral value. Moral value In the book ‘Nicomachean Ethics’, Aristotle defines moral value as a means between extremes of surplus and deficiency. In this case moral life can be considered as the moderation of all human attributes except virtue (Aristotle 327). Aristotle argues than no human desire is bad if the intended results are beneficial or good2. Moral virtue is acquired when knowledge, self-discipline and habitation are combined to create reason for an action. Fashion photography entails the shooting of many immoral captions as it is a wide field. There are also many reasons behind the taking of fashion photographs. Many photographers find themselves in a quagmire between choosing to stick to their cultural and moral values of make money through the caption of fashion designs which many critics would consider immoral. Aristotle explains the philosophical approach in handling such situation through the use of the concept of moral virtue. Moral virtue is achieved by an action in a social environment. Ethics and fashion photography are related as they both explore the good result of the exploitation in potential. Fashion photography exploits the good things that life can offer when a person exploits his or her full potential in photography without considering the notion of morality while ethics considers the good things that life can offer if morality is put to consideration. Both ethics and fashion photography provide a social environment for moral action. Intellectual virtue Intellectual virtue comprise of character traits that are essential for correct thinking as well as right actions. These include: empathy, perseverance, intellectual courage and integrity. Photography is a creative art that requires intellectual virtues in order to advance. Logically, any person can take a photograph but he or she cannot be a perfect photographer without the passion of doing photography as a career. Fashion photography may require a photographer to take many immoral photos in his or her career. Most fashion magazines do not consider morality as an entity of business advancement since immorality sales more than morality in the current world. Fashion photographers may be forced to take actions which go against their religious beliefs and cultural practices for the betterment of their careers. In such instances, fashion photographers tend to rely on intellectual virtue to clear their conscience. Plato gives a good example of intellectual virtue which demonstrates the use of intellectual courage and integrity in difficult situations3. In his dialogue, Euthyphro prosecutes his own father for unintentionally killing a murderous person (Pluto. 430). Socrates challenges him outside the court by asking him to state the moral or religious value in his actions. Socrates continues to challenge Euthyphro by asking him about holiness as he relates it to his decision to prosecute his innocent father4. Euthyphro argues that ‘holiness is persecuting religious offenders’ (Pluto. 438). Socrates is a character who fails to display integrity and empathy in his decisions. Intellectual virtues present the opportunity for people to put themselves in the place of the criticized or accused party. Fashion photographers are always criticized for their lack of moral concerns as their captions are viewed and embraced by both the young and old people in the societies all over the world. However, fashion photographers view their caption beyond moral aspect thus are justified in their actions. Intellectual virtue provides a platform for actions which are considered morally bad but have beneficial results. Aristotle’s ideal of happiness Aristotle attributes human happiness to the end result of an action (Aristotle. 327). In his view, human activities are directed to the highest good that suppresses all the bad outcomes of an action in its build up towards the ultimate results which create more positive outcome than the other negative outcomes it has presented5. In other terms, it is considered as doing an action considered to be bad for the great or good. A fashion photographer may be subjected to a lot of decisions that entails many immoral captions but the end result can turn out to be a good fashion design will be admired by many people. Happiness is therefore generated by a person’s ultimate achievement rather than the route used to attain the end results of an action. Conclusion Immanuel Kant believes that reason provides human beings with an opinion of what they ought to do6. He divides this aspect into three forms. These are ethics, physics and logic. Ethics assesses the moral value and virtues in an action (Kant. 1736). Logic assesses the level of reasoned or reasonable judgment7. Physics presents the level of knowhow in an action. According to Kant, an action is only considered evil or bad if the end result does not portray any beneficial outcome. Fashion photography can be considered as a good career despite the immoral outcome that is presented by some of the fashion captions. Work Cited Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics Oxford: London. Oxford University Press. 2002. Print Kant Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1998. Print Plato. Five Dialogues: Indianapolis. Hackett Publishing. 2001. Print Read More