What is an artist?

Having a discussion of what an artist is I was asked to write down an artists name to do a test. Most artists or that is to say most famous artist all fall under four categorise. Its not very often that we think of people of artists who don't fall into at least one of these four areas, me included as i chose da vinci.

• Male
• From europe or america
• Dead
• A painter

Women artists are less known however I find it odd that everyone doing my course is female. I feel that through the past few years women have become more common in the art world and it is only a matter of time till the four main categories change. 

I believe that that an artist is someone who expresses their ideas or work as they wish and some often do things in order to get a reaction. An artist doesn't have to be famous to have their own "art" appreciated by other people and i believe that is the most important part of being an artist or at least the most fulfilling. As long as someone else understands the point or statement you want to send across through your work, you could consider your work to be art.

here is a list of 20 photographers:

Rankin
Andy Warhol
La Chapelle
David Hockney
David Bailey
Bordin
Martin Parr
Rodchenko
Annie Leibovitz
Paul Strand
Julie Margaret Cameron
Ewen Spencer
Leonard Nimoy
Tom Barnes
Tim Walker
Gregory Crewdson
William Wegman
Faye Goodwin
Ansel Adams
Alfred Stieglitz