A few months ago, I decided to start calling myself an artist, instead of a photographer. After all, I create art. Or I try to.

Artists aren't trying to represent what I see in an accurate and truthfully way. We try to express ourselves.

Instead of capturing nature with proper exposure and focus so it resembles as much as possible the original, we try to use it to express an idea or emotion, to add our own character.

This approach to photography is less about what's in front of the lens, and more about who's behind it.

In order to make an image able to convey our message from a realistic representation, often times we have no choice but to edit, in software or the darkroom, our negatives, RAW files, whatever it is, so creation can happen.

Many dismiss this as unethical or unnecessary. I say, this is how art is done.