Hobbies, Photography and the Hobby of Photography
The exhibition “The Hobbyist” takes a look at hobby culture and photography, and both amateur cultures and professionalism. It shows hobbies and hobbyists captured through photographs and, using the example of photography, explores the interface between amateur and professional.
The word hobby comes from the English word “hobbyhorse”, used to describe the wooden toy horses created for children. From this comes the idea of ‘riding one’s hobbyhorse’ – pursuing one’s favourite pastime. No-one indulges in a hobby as a survival skill nor is a hobby a profession, it is something people engage in out of passion, identify with and that helps people to develop a self-image.
The relationship between photography and hobby is manifold. On the one hand, photography is a popular hobby: you can see entire groups of people photographing their way through cities. As a professional activity, photography often develops out of a passion and strong interest, and so many photographers have “turned their hobbies into a profession”. The photographic documentation of hobbies is widespread, people are proud of their hobbies and what they create from them, and so hobbies are particularly popular photographic subjects.
The exhibition takes a differentiated view by showing amateur photography as well as artistic positions – the borderlines between them have quickly become blurred owing to the spread and availability – the democratisation – of photographic techniques and devices.