ABSTRACT
Photographic colleges, as part of their policy in trying to professionalize photography, are still tightening up their entrance qualifications for those wishing to study photography. Commercial photography is a competitive ratrace entirely geared to servicing the needs of contemporary consumer society. The most recent break with traditional fields of photography has been use of photography as a TOOL by community activists. Photography as a tool is far removed from such attitudes because it negates elitism. The main objective is to enable people to achieve some degree of autonomy in their own lives and to be able to express themselves more easily, thus gaining solidarity with each other. Some photographers have already been threatened with the withdrawal of their funds because they have supposedly gone too far. This has of course been a problem for photographers for a long time; however involved they are, they still have to gain confidence of their subject matter in order to get their pictures.
