photographer

photographer — noun

1. someone who uses a camera to make pictures, especially for work or as a serious

1.nounA2
Definition

someone who uses a camera to make pictures, especially for work or as a serious hobby.

Example

Aya works as a wedding photographer in Taipei on most weekends.

pattern: work as a photographer

The school photographer lined the children up beside the gym wall.

collocation: school photographer

Common collocations
  • wedding photographer
  • school photographer
  • wildlife photographer
  • work as a photographer
  • hire a photographer
Synonyms
  • photojournalist

    more specific; takes pictures for news reporting

  • snapper

    informal, often used for someone who takes casual or press photos

  • paparazzo

    specifically a photographer who follows famous people for pictures

Grammar Patterns

work as a photographer

wedding/school/press photographer

photographer for + newspaper/company

Usage Note

Often appears after work as or become a, or with a field word such as wedding, fashion, or sports. Distinguish from camera operator: a photographer usually takes still pictures, not video.

Common Mistakes

My uncle is a photograph for the local paper.
My uncle is a photographer for the local paper.
A photograph is the picture; a photographer is the person who takes it.
We hired photographer for the party.
We hired a photographer for the party.
Use an article before this countable noun when you mean one person.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Photographer is the broad everyday word for someone who takes still pictures. A photojournalist is narrower: the job is to record real events for newspapers, magazines, or news websites, so speed and factual value matter. A paparazzo also takes photos of real people, but the word usually suggests chasing celebrities in an unwanted or aggressive way. A camera operator works with a camera too, but normally for video rather than single photos. So you can hire a photographer for a wedding, send a photojournalist to cover a flood, complain about paparazzi outside a hotel, and ask a camera operator to film the concert.

photographer ↗photojournalistpaparazzocamera operator

Common collocations

Nouns

  • wedding photographer
  • school photographer
  • press photographer

Phrases

  • work as a photographer
  • hire a photographer

Prepositions

  • photographer for
  • photographer at

Etymology

GreekFrenchEnglish

Built in English from photograph plus the suffix -er, which names a person who does an action. Photograph came into English in the 1800s from French and goes back to Greek parts meaning 'light' and 'write or draw', because a photograph is an image made by light.