Why “imagery” instead of “photography”?

I’ve been asked before why I decided to name my company “Alexis Rae Imagery” rather than “Alexis Rae Photography”.

Yes, you would be correct if you told me it’s easier for people to search and find my business if I named it “photography”. By trade, I am a photographer. That is what I do, in a nutshell. But, there’s quite a few reasons why I moved away from the “photography” label, and I’ll highlight that in this post.

Discovering my name...

Starting out, I made up several names for my budding business venture. For the longest time as a newbie, I simply did “Lexi Rae Photography”. It was my name, and clearly listed myself as a photographer. Later on, I decided it sounded too informal, and moved to “Photography by Alexis C”. Now, that was a fine name and all; it sounded formal and listed myself as a photographer. But it was a mouthful.

I started to feel it didn’t reflect who I was an artist. The literal Greek definition of photography is “to draw with light”. I grew up a natural-born artist. Any medium would work for me, as long as I could create. When I discovered I could capture the beauty I saw in life with a camera around the age of 12, that was it. That became a medium that I would forever strive to perfect. 

I started to learn to process my photos better; I started to master my camera and the art of photography. In 2021, I had an epiphany to remodel my business name to reflect my love and passion for photography.

That’s when “imagery” came about. 

What is photography?

The definition of photography is “the art or practice of taking and processing photographs”. Film photography, although making a comeback, is a dying art. Legitimately processing photographs in a home dark room is not common. Now days, we see a lot of people labelling themselves as iPhone photographers. Pretty much anyone can be a photographer if it simply means to take a photograph. We see that in people who buy a cheap camera and offer to take your picture in exchange for $45 through Venmo. It doesn’t sound very artsy, or professional, when you view it through the cold-hard-truth lens. 

Equating "imagery" to my name

Now, the definition of imagery is “the use of pictures (or words) to create images, especially to create an impression or mood”. It’s easy to take a picture. It’s much more difficult to create an image that invokes feeling. That, my friend, takes artistry and skill. It’s equivalent to doing a paint-by-number with 5 different colors, versus creating a Bob Ross-level painting from a blank canvas. Is “imagery” immediately telling of a photographer? Well, I hope so. But it does reflect artistry. It reflects something beyond photography. 

I could probably go on and on, but I will end this with the fact that I do believe my work is something beyond just photography. Now all that’s left, is to show you how you fit in to that picture... literally!