Great comments about why people love photography. I have been reading about the early photographers, and the technical challenges they faced. It is amazing that nowadays so many people have the opportunity to take good photos, relatively inexpensively, empowering them to be able to make this huge range of comments about why they love photography.
Photography is a powerful medium for capturing the moments in life that reveal themselves all around us. However, photography has proven itself to be much more valuable to me than a means of preserving memories and telling a story.
I have come to value photography as a tool that reminds me to live in the moment and be acutely aware of life as it unfolds before me. It lowers my guard and encourages me to interact more fully with those I meet during my travels. It teaches me patience and invokes a sense of calm.
I hope to convey these qualities in the images I share.
Hello, Andy! When I was young, one of the messages I consistently received was that I wasn’t creative . This was in the 70s and early 80s, and at that time, and within the context of where I lived, it meant I didn’t have any artistic interests or abilities.
It wasn’t until I picked up a camera in my thirties that I realized this wasn’t true. When I look through the lens of a camera, it’s almost like looking through a kaleidoscope. The magic of different colors, shapes, prints, and patterns interacting with each other makes some neuronal pathway in my brain light up like a runway. And taking pictures led me back to my writing, something I’d lost touch with over the years.
I’m only starting on my photography journey, my daughter moved to Australia and left her camera behind , I decided to take classes and learn how to use it manually. I now see the world through different eyes. I see beauty in places that I frowned on before, I regularly visit museums to see art and now when I see other peoples photography, I think ‘WOW’ how did they get that shot and can I do it ? When I travel , I look for back streets and quirky people , it’s so enjoyable walking with a camera, capturing life.
I photograph because it speaks in feelings not words so much. The immediacy and the making of the images seems to be clues and totems of yourself- it’s visual poetry.
As a scientist photographing (a little different from "photography") has long been a way to exercise my right brain since my other half has always had plenty. As a photographer what I like most is calling attention to things I see out of the corner of my eye I think are interesting (for many reasons, some probably idiosyncratic) or beautiful or funny or whatever that other people might not notice and giving them and me a little pleasure. I also like pushing my camera (s) to their limits like taking pictures on a street at night or if things are moving too fast to make sharp clear images hoping serendipity (one of my photo gods or goddesses) will produce something I think is beautiful or arresting without my having to plan the details since let's face it I don't aspire or pretend to be the kind of fine artist who plans an image in advance. And finally what I seek to do for myself is probably different from what I expect others to achieve photographically. I grew up looking at documentary photography by the folks who worked for the FSA and reported what was going on in places in America at a time which probably represented a new way of seeing. That has been a great influence on how and what I see and try to photograph but I'm also interested in other ways of seeing and for this reason am enjoying your posts as intros into different worlds than (I guess) my imagination lives in. And thank you for the chance to express this in what I guess is a public space as I'm not sure I've ever put these thoughts down in writing though I've expressed some of them aloud.
Photography forces me to see the world through a different viewpoint. What is captured is important, but just as important is what is not captured. The subject captured in the frame is exclusive of every other aspect of reality and existence at the time it is captured. The same is also true for the time it takes to capture the photo. If my shutter is open for 1/60th of a second, then I am choosing to exclude all other time and to focus only on that split second of all of time. In photography, we are capturing a moment, and only a moment, for all of time.
I don’t love photography. It’s grown into a meditation on being present, being open-minded, and seeing the world in the moment, without the debilitating effects of time. The instantaneous nature of the shutter is more effective than words, or using pencils or paintbrushes. There is the process of observation in all of those mediums, but I don’t have to maintain the concentration beyond the moment of releasing the shutter. It’s sort of a relief to pause after capture and let my mind run free. Do I love it? I love looking and the process of seeing, but photography is just a medium that helps me practice seeing.
Nothing really repeats itself exactly...time is always moving forward...photography allows me to capture or see a unique moment in time...to relive a smile, to relive the colour of the sky...and it becomes even more special when you think that you are seeing life through someone else’s eyes.
After all, we might only be able to imagine what it feels like walking on other people’s shoes - but photography allows us to see through their eyes.
My father was a photographer. I grew up in front of the camera and in the dark room. He taught us how to take photographs from a young age. I ultimately went on to become a painter and what my Dad taught me about making a strong image carried through to my paintings. About 10 years ago I developed illness related brain fog and lost my painters brain. In my loss my Dad gave me a nice camera and I started wandering around taking pictures. Now I am a fairly serious photographer. What I love about photography is that it helped me in a low time, it helped me hold on to my identity as an artist. Photography really brought me back into being my Dad's little buddy. Now that he has passed away I think about him whenever I am out with my camera and I feel like our shared enthusiasm for photography became one of the ways we expressed our love for each other.
I’ve always been into photography and the particulars of why this lens works this way, large scale Polaroids... small scale Polaroids (!)... and was very happy in my classes to use cameras that were not cool in high school - Hasselblads, 4x5s, pinhole, you name it. Then technology put me on the rails for a long time. Only when developers of apps such as Lomo and Hipstamatic started re-inventing the appreciation of lo-fi for mobile photographers with toy camera reproductions and such did I fall back into the mode. The best thing is that I’m not being accidentally electrocuted by a darkroom timer and my skin doesn’t reak of the raw egg smells. :)
Great comments about why people love photography. I have been reading about the early photographers, and the technical challenges they faced. It is amazing that nowadays so many people have the opportunity to take good photos, relatively inexpensively, empowering them to be able to make this huge range of comments about why they love photography.
Photography is a powerful medium for capturing the moments in life that reveal themselves all around us. However, photography has proven itself to be much more valuable to me than a means of preserving memories and telling a story.
I have come to value photography as a tool that reminds me to live in the moment and be acutely aware of life as it unfolds before me. It lowers my guard and encourages me to interact more fully with those I meet during my travels. It teaches me patience and invokes a sense of calm.
I hope to convey these qualities in the images I share.
Cheers, Skip!
Hello, Andy! When I was young, one of the messages I consistently received was that I wasn’t creative . This was in the 70s and early 80s, and at that time, and within the context of where I lived, it meant I didn’t have any artistic interests or abilities.
It wasn’t until I picked up a camera in my thirties that I realized this wasn’t true. When I look through the lens of a camera, it’s almost like looking through a kaleidoscope. The magic of different colors, shapes, prints, and patterns interacting with each other makes some neuronal pathway in my brain light up like a runway. And taking pictures led me back to my writing, something I’d lost touch with over the years.
I’m only starting on my photography journey, my daughter moved to Australia and left her camera behind , I decided to take classes and learn how to use it manually. I now see the world through different eyes. I see beauty in places that I frowned on before, I regularly visit museums to see art and now when I see other peoples photography, I think ‘WOW’ how did they get that shot and can I do it ? When I travel , I look for back streets and quirky people , it’s so enjoyable walking with a camera, capturing life.
I photograph because it speaks in feelings not words so much. The immediacy and the making of the images seems to be clues and totems of yourself- it’s visual poetry.
As a scientist photographing (a little different from "photography") has long been a way to exercise my right brain since my other half has always had plenty. As a photographer what I like most is calling attention to things I see out of the corner of my eye I think are interesting (for many reasons, some probably idiosyncratic) or beautiful or funny or whatever that other people might not notice and giving them and me a little pleasure. I also like pushing my camera (s) to their limits like taking pictures on a street at night or if things are moving too fast to make sharp clear images hoping serendipity (one of my photo gods or goddesses) will produce something I think is beautiful or arresting without my having to plan the details since let's face it I don't aspire or pretend to be the kind of fine artist who plans an image in advance. And finally what I seek to do for myself is probably different from what I expect others to achieve photographically. I grew up looking at documentary photography by the folks who worked for the FSA and reported what was going on in places in America at a time which probably represented a new way of seeing. That has been a great influence on how and what I see and try to photograph but I'm also interested in other ways of seeing and for this reason am enjoying your posts as intros into different worlds than (I guess) my imagination lives in. And thank you for the chance to express this in what I guess is a public space as I'm not sure I've ever put these thoughts down in writing though I've expressed some of them aloud.
🥹
Photography forces me to see the world through a different viewpoint. What is captured is important, but just as important is what is not captured. The subject captured in the frame is exclusive of every other aspect of reality and existence at the time it is captured. The same is also true for the time it takes to capture the photo. If my shutter is open for 1/60th of a second, then I am choosing to exclude all other time and to focus only on that split second of all of time. In photography, we are capturing a moment, and only a moment, for all of time.
I don’t love photography. It’s grown into a meditation on being present, being open-minded, and seeing the world in the moment, without the debilitating effects of time. The instantaneous nature of the shutter is more effective than words, or using pencils or paintbrushes. There is the process of observation in all of those mediums, but I don’t have to maintain the concentration beyond the moment of releasing the shutter. It’s sort of a relief to pause after capture and let my mind run free. Do I love it? I love looking and the process of seeing, but photography is just a medium that helps me practice seeing.
Also, I have the Tim Carpenter book, and I’m busting scribbling in the margins.
Nothing really repeats itself exactly...time is always moving forward...photography allows me to capture or see a unique moment in time...to relive a smile, to relive the colour of the sky...and it becomes even more special when you think that you are seeing life through someone else’s eyes.
After all, we might only be able to imagine what it feels like walking on other people’s shoes - but photography allows us to see through their eyes.
My father was a photographer. I grew up in front of the camera and in the dark room. He taught us how to take photographs from a young age. I ultimately went on to become a painter and what my Dad taught me about making a strong image carried through to my paintings. About 10 years ago I developed illness related brain fog and lost my painters brain. In my loss my Dad gave me a nice camera and I started wandering around taking pictures. Now I am a fairly serious photographer. What I love about photography is that it helped me in a low time, it helped me hold on to my identity as an artist. Photography really brought me back into being my Dad's little buddy. Now that he has passed away I think about him whenever I am out with my camera and I feel like our shared enthusiasm for photography became one of the ways we expressed our love for each other.
I’ve always been into photography and the particulars of why this lens works this way, large scale Polaroids... small scale Polaroids (!)... and was very happy in my classes to use cameras that were not cool in high school - Hasselblads, 4x5s, pinhole, you name it. Then technology put me on the rails for a long time. Only when developers of apps such as Lomo and Hipstamatic started re-inventing the appreciation of lo-fi for mobile photographers with toy camera reproductions and such did I fall back into the mode. The best thing is that I’m not being accidentally electrocuted by a darkroom timer and my skin doesn’t reak of the raw egg smells. :)
Ha! Cheers, Titus ;)