Everybody became a photographer in 1888, with the invention of the Brownie box camera and flexible film - here are two quotes from the Kodak website : http://www.kodak.com/global/en/corp/historyOfKodak/eastmanTheMan.jhtml?pq-path=2689&pq-locale=en_US

"Thanks to Eastman's inventive genius, anyone could now take pictures with a handheld camera simply by pressing a button. He made photographers of us all."


"Eastman coined the slogan, "you press the button, we do the rest," when he introduced the Kodak camera in 1888 and within a year, it became a well-known phrase."

A novel idea: let's all go back to coating our glass plates with colloidon and expose it while still wet and develop in on the spot as Matthew Brady & Co. did to prove we are photograpers! :) Just kidding.

Every time there is a change in technology, many predict the death of photography. I've been a witness to that since 1959 when I started making photographs with a $10 6x6 cm TLR and Verichrome Pan. Then a year or so later, 35-mm SLRs with built-in and, oh horror, through the lens light meters (ca 1960) arrived and were going to ruin the art of photography forever...

It is vision not equipment that makes a photographer (or any other artist).

End of rant. :)
Well put Ivan!