I remember once playing a little mind game with Tokyo-based photographer Torin Boyd. We were sitting in a Kabukicho bar, looking through his portfolio. Every time I said something about "taking pictures," in his response he substituted the verb "make" for the verb "take," as in "I made this picture last year." As the pages were turned and the beers were drunk, I consciously stuck with "take," and he stubbornly parried with "make."
In time, we both came to an unspoken understanding of what the other was up to -- that is, politely asserting a contradictory opinion on the question of the creative process involved in photography. Finally, impressed both with Boyd's finely crafted photographs and his commitment to his art, I acquiesced, and said "make." I thought I saw a little smile on his face.
Now, years later, I have come to appreciate that there are those who "take photographs," like Nobuyoshi Araki, who roams Kabukicho, Leica in hand, hunting down his images -- and those who "make photographs," like Hiroshi Sugimoto, who hauls his large-format cameras up seaside cliffs to record, in time exposures that may last an entire day, the gentle rolling of the waves on the ocean below.