What Makes a Good Photographer Good? Is There Such a Thing as the Best Photographer?

I will try to put into words, from my own point of view, an increasingly common question.

As digital technology develops at enormous speed, image-making tools have become accessible to almost everyone.

Countless people create photographs every day — sometimes through conscious composition, more often instinctively.

Photography is a beautiful hobby because images allow us to preserve emotions, thoughts and impressions and share them with other people.

In the era of highly automated cameras, we no longer necessarily need to master every technical detail.

We can simply see, expose and communicate the subject.

Many people practise photography purely as a hobby and still create wonderful work — sometimes even with a mobile phone.

For that reason, I believe almost anybody today can become a good photographer.

In fact, anybody can become the best in a particular field if they are capable of stepping outside their own world and entering the world of the subject they are photographing.

That requires emotional intelligence.

And humility.

What do I mean?

Imagine a field.

In the middle of it stands a house with no windows.

There is only one door, and for now that door is closed.

You are inside.

You have built your own small world there.

If it is orderly, it is orderly.

If it is chaotic, it is chaotic.

That interior is your emotional world.

Even though the field surrounds you, you cannot see it.

You see only what is inside the house.

You know another world exists outside, but you cannot really describe it because you cannot experience it.

Then you open the door.

Now you can see what is outside.

Most people photograph the external world from exactly that position:

From the perspective of their own inner world.

But if you think about it, the view remains limited.

The doorframe creates boundaries.

These are the conscious creators who move toward the subject but still present everything through their own point of view.

To genuinely communicate what exists outside, we have to step out of the house.

Move away from safety.

Into uncertainty.

Once outside, the world opens.

We feel the breeze on our skin.

Smell the flowers.

Feel the softness of grass beneath our feet.

Every direction reveals a different world.

Only then can we create an image that affects the viewer in a way similar to how the situation affects us.

We have entered the world of the subject.

Now we can show directly what we feel.

A good photographer is good because they allow the subject to affect them.

They allow themselves to be carried by it.

Then, like clear glass, they pass forward what is happening without unnecessary distortion.

That is probably how I would describe what makes a good photographer good.

The very best photographers, in my view, are those who do not try to be photographers at all.

They simply exist.

They see with their soul and help others see through it.

Day after day, their way of seeing leaves something genuinely valuable for future generations.

The images in this article are NOT my own work.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.