Giving up photography

About fifteen years ago I started feeling really burned out. Photography was moving in directions that held no interest for me. I could no longer make the kind of money that I'd been making, and it was more and more difficult to shoot traditional black and white. I packed up my darkroom and just about completely stopped shooting, especially B&W.

I started doing more writing and a lot more fishing, culminating in getting my Coast Guard boat captain's license, becoming a fishing guide, winning tournaments and speaking at seminars. That's when I discovered that I had epilepsy. I've now got that under control, but I also bought a 15mm Heliar lens and a Bessa L body. Suddenly photography was FUN again.

My son would like me to be spending more time in the darkroom printing up my old negatives. These days I'm mostly shooting cheapy Walgreens house brand (Fuji?) color film and scanning off drugstore prints for my blog http://thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com and I've gotten re-involved in the local political scene. I love politics! I wander around town with Monkette, my toy monkey, the 15mm Heliar equipped Bessa L and a few spare rolls of film stuffed in my pocket.

Is it great photography? It's good enough that Monkette gets invited to all the right parties and she always brings her favorite photographer with her (she doesn't drive). I shoot one or two 24 exp. rolls a week and post on the blog daily along with some tongue-in-cheek commentary, usually about local politics. With city elections coming up on May 12th Monkette lets everybody know that she was responsible for Kevin Burns re-election to the mayor's seat two years ago. She's probably right, too. Day after day the blog was getting more hits than the Miami Herald's coverage of the mayoral race. She had a seat of honor at the victory party.

Once the election is over Monkette thinks that I should continue photographing her. She dreams of catching big fish and winning fishing tournaments. Gotta keep photography FUN!!
 
I'd already given up photography once–in fact, the circumstances rather closely mirror Ruben's (I had a lot of turbulence in my life about fifteen years ago). Yes, it was more a case of au revoir rather than farewell, but I didn't snap a single picture for something like two years. I did miss it, in spite of it being self-imposed exile, but I had too many things going rather badly to give my photography my best. I've credited my involement in photography in my youth as a bulwark against a lot of awful stuff happening then, but this was different, and required some kind of hiatus.

And now? It would likely take the Grim Reaper or blindness to make me drop it...it's too vital to me, and I have too many ideas in my head that I wish to get onto film somehow, more than I'll likely ever get to. It's a wonderful feeling.


- Barrett
 
Al, great story, we are the same, almost, age; so too many years of taking photos to turn back. That is really cool, be sure to redo your old negatives. I'm sure your son, as my kids do, will love them. And I totally agree most politicians are elected my monkeys
 
I did it just after high school - lost interest in it completely - nothing really that caused it though - that was 1984 - didn't come back to it till 1998 when digital cameras became more "mainstream"

Dave
 
Roger Hicks said:
What, if anything, would make you give up photography?
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Simple. If I found a better way to communicate the emotion I want to communicate, to convey the thoughts I want to convey, to express my message better than I could through visual images, I would do it.

It is the communication, not the prints, not the cameras, not the film for me.
 
being forced to photograph made me quit for a while.

yeah, forced. when we adopted our daughter, one of the requirements of the the agency was that we shoot four rolls per week of her.

we had just moved, my camera gear had inadvertantly been put in storage and we didn't know where it was, and we were dead broke (think Leica is expensive? try adoption!) - so I ended up using a cheapie P&S.

there are only so many shots you can take of an infant w/ a p&s. without getting sick of it. no matter how much I love her! :angel:
 
About 3 years ago, I began to lose my passion for wildlife photography. I also thought I wanted to try my hand at the other extreme of the focal length, so as not to be separarted from my subject. I felt a desire to challenge myself to be IN the action. But at first I thought I would be putting down the camera for good, until I suddenly got interested in street. And the way it happened was kind of interesting.

My future wife came up to Milwaukee from the Chicago suburbs for weekly reheasals (she is an opera singer). So if I wanted to see her on those days/nights, I had to meet her in downtown Milwaukee. Well, all my life I have avoided the city as much as possible. Well, suddenly I had the motivation to get into the city that would eventually lead me to trying street photography. Where formerly I was a photographer who avoided humans in my images, and I was now NEEDING them to give me back the passion that had faded away.

You just never know where life is going to take you!

FrozenInTime said:
Once I get too old to have a darkroom or even operate a computer, that print button on the back of a digicam will finally come into it's own.
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Funny to think that that's what we actually had with the Polaroid. The closest thing that we have to that now is the small injet printer. I have an HP for that kind of thing, but actually rarely use it.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Simple. If I found a better way to communicate the emotion I want to communicate, to convey the thoughts I want to convey, to express my message better than I could through visual images, I would do it.
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That is what singing often does for me. Sometimes it can carry me through a period when I'm feeling visually dry.

It is the communication, not the prints, not the cameras, not the film for me.
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Amen, brother.
 
Peter Henry Emerson, one of the leaders in the movement to have photography accepted as art in the 19th century, changed his mind and declared that photography was not art. Henri Cartier-Bresson gave up photography in the 1970's, also saying that it was not art. I will never give it up in my lifetime.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Peter Henry Emerson, one of the leaders in the movement to have photography accepted as art in the 19th century, changed his mind and declared that photography was not art. Henri Cartier-Bresson gave up photography in the 1970's, also saying that it was not art. I will never give it up in my lifetime.
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oh really ?


never say never
 
I thought Cartier-Bresson gave it up because he discovered that he much more enjoyed drawing and painting to taking photo's as he got older. He always viewed photography as a means to create an instant drawing.
 
For many purists, it might be when film is no longer available. I have floated in and out of this hobby throughout my life. I don't know why. It has been consistent for the last 5-6 years, though. If you do this for a living, like anything else you do for money and not for fun, you might just burn out to it and never want to take a picture again for the rest of your life - understandable. Or - creative burn out, like musicians, authors, and filmmakers. You just run out of fresh ideas and just repeat yourself...
 
Micky D said:
"Never mind photography..." and now "Giving up photography".

Where is this leading you Roger?
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Dear Micky,

Good question. I can't imagine giving it up but I've been writing a lot more lately (not about photography!) and there are only so many hours in the day. This also ties in with what was said elsewhere about communication, rather than the medium, being the important bit.

Then there's equipment. Increasingly, I find that this divides into kit I REALLY like (such as the M8.2 and 24 Summilux, or MP and 35 Summilux) and stuff that I'm just not interested in any more. I really ought to get rid of at least half the cameras in my possession.

On the other hand, in May/June I'm hoping to do a tour of Central and Eastern Europe in the Land Rover with Frances and Aditi, and no doubt I'll be shooting a lot then.

Perhaps it was prompted by the fact that today I have to shoot some boring illustration shots of equipment to illustrate articles, and that yesterday I got 'pictured out' scanning film and selecting M8 shots for one of the articles. As someone else said, being forced to take pics is a turn-off.

Quite often, days go by without my picking up a camera. Rarely, a week or more. It's been much like that for the last 43 years...

Tashi delek,

Roger
 
Roger, I think that's the consequence of most professions. I have friends who are FBI and ATF agents (I shot handguns competitively for years, so you picks up a few odd friends along the way 🙂. They all say that they thought it would be cool carrying a gun all the time when they first started, but that carrying a couple of pounds on your hip all the time got to be a real drag pretty fast. And professional musicians who go weeks at a time if they aren't recording or touring without ever touching a guitar. Or writers who go for long periods without sitting down in front of MS Word.

I think that just goes with the the gig, you know?
 
Pickett Wilson said:
Roger, I think that's the consequence of most professions. I have friends who are FBI and ATF agents (I shot handguns competitively for years, so you picks up a few odd friends along the way 🙂. They all say that they thought it would be cool carrying a gun all the time when they first started, but that carrying a couple of pounds on your hip all the time got to be a real drag pretty fast. And professional musicians who go weeks at a time if they aren't recording or touring without ever touching a guitar. Or writers who go for long periods without sitting down in front of MS Word.

I think that just goes with the the gig, you know?
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I can undrstand this, I've mentioned before that my main pleasure is being able to get out to beautiful places and photogenic scenery, if I could no longer do this, that would be the killer. Sometimes I shoot little, or nothing - but usually go home happy. Lately it's just been a Nikon P5100 P&S in my jacket pocket....there if needed, and often giving amazing results.
Cheers, Dave.
 
When I can no longer make images I'm proud of.
When those images become so derivative as to become banal.
That day gets closer all the time with the enormous proliferation of online images. Everyone has a camera and everyone thinks he or she is a photographer. I sure wouldn't want too be a professional today.

When I began shooting twenty five years ago, the art of photography was also the craft of photography. Today, photography has long since lost its mystery. When you can Photoshop your images to perfection, picture taking skills are nice to have but are much less important. Imagine if they invented an automatic paintbrush? I realize that this is a spurious argument, easily dismantled. But it is just how I feel at the moment. As the character Syndrome says in "The Incredibles": when everyone can be a super(hero), no one will be.
 
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Sometimes reading this forum makes me feel like giving up photography. 😉

Seriously though, a year working at Olympus right out of tech school made me give up photography for ten years.

Working nights for the last five years has seriously curtailed my photography but fortunately not my interest.

Chris
 
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