PHOTOGRAPHY Doesn't Need Me - I Need PHOTOGRAPHY

R

ruben

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Hmmm..... this could be very much a personal "blog" of no interest to anyone, therefore I will try my best to constrain to what may be of common interest. Although, this must be said, I could never arrive to what I am going to write unless I digg deep within my specific self.

Periodically we have had some threads asking for the source of our attraction to our beloved craft/art.

Some of them were directly and outspokenly aimed, others by insinuation or unintended implication. I would mention here a recent thread opened by our friend Kshapero, asking something like 'what do you do with your pics'. Just by reading the title, you can think about drawers or about the deeper sense of the question.

Our friend FrankS should be mentioned too among several among us trying to elucidate what the hell are we doing with fifty cameras and hundreds of lenses, bags, etc - not to mention minor accesories in order to remain within the hundred number. With this last sentence I am refering too to the many times we approach the same issue by its humouristic side.

Satysfaction, pleasure, and other similar answers have been given alongside personal context. Do I have something new to add ? Perhaps. Perhaps for some among us, and for sure not all among us. We are still humans and as such, the "otherness" is our permanent uncommon.

Here I must go a bit personal and start to segment my answer. First, I am in need of a craft due to an inner need of expression. In fact it is beyond expression, it is rather a need for a virtual building of something. This 'something' must be virtual to let me absolute control.

Here I am implying that photography is very much a virtual practice, a virtual imagery, not the true reflection of the outside world - quite a very flat and accepted agreement among us.

Now, why photography, instead of anything else?. I can imagine different circumstancial reasons for all of us, and a single substantial reason for some among us, or me only at least.

Photography leaves us the illusion of a "real" world as we would like it to be.

Among the craft lovers, some of us dedicated to the craft of photography, cannot content ourselves with building small scale ships. There is a kind of reality, or contact with reality, that must be a key ingredient.

Because it is not enough for us to relax, to let our hands and minds work, to give a gateaway to a certain skill. We need a paradoxical proof that there is some truth in our virtual lie.

Complex mamipherous we are, photographers.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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A good friend of mine is a poet.

Another writes short stories.

And another is a textile artist.

All creative.

I think my photos are creative too.

I sit and watch and learn for a long time. And then record that in perhaps 1/60 of a second. When I show the photo I write about the situation. I don't steal photos, or take photos, no, I make photos.

Photography is a lot like fishing. My neighbor returns from a morning fishing and shows me his catch, I pick up my film from the lab and look at my catch.
 
Photography is an accessible visual art for everyone because it can translate that 3d world into 2d without talent or years of training. Buy a digital P&S, point it at a person, push the button, and incredibly sophisticated technology finds the face, focuses on it, waits until it is smiling and takes a perfectly focused, perfectly exposed 2d capture of it.

Some of us choose old, flakey, manual cameras that require constant fiddling with, but raise our value of the experience and the ultimate photos because of the struggle.

Few of us have proven to have a real, sustained interest in taking photos over time. Except for a pure collector with lots of money, actually taking photos is just a justification for buying cameras, in many cases, which is our real interest.

It's paradoxical. My bag that contains my working kit has at least $20,000 worth of digital SLR gear in it. I shoot dozens, and some days, hundreds of photos with it each day. I do my best work with it. But beyond keeping the gear clean, I have no real interest in the stuff as objects of desire. They are tools. The best tools I've ever worked with, but tools.

Then there are the dozens of other cameras. Leicas, film SLR's, MF cameras, 4x5. I use this stuff to take photos far less often than the digital stuff. I don't take better photos with the old stuff (although I shot film most of my life). I don't get GAS over digital cameras, though. I get GAS for Leicas and Hasselblads and Eastman 2D 8x10's, in the last case a pretty impractical camera for me as I no longer have a darkroom to work with large format. But I bought another recently, one which I probably, realistically, will never use. But it is beautiful and mechanical and holds such potential. So these objects I buy and don't heavily use don't inspire me to take photos as much as inspire me to acquire more pretty things.

Ruben, I don't know about validating my virtual life. I'm not even sure I completely understand what you are trying to say. But I agree that photography - actually going out and taking photos - has for many years provided me with a means of expression that exceeds that of anything else I've done (music, other forms of art, etc). But I'm very bipolar with the whole "photography" thing.

Sometimes, for me, if I'm not careful, cameras get in the way of photography. They become the end rather than the means.
 
Sometimes, for me, if I'm not careful, cameras get in the way of photography. They become the end rather than the means.[/quote]........mmm, - true of 90% of the posters on rff, I would think!! ;)
 
Fred Burton said:
Few of us have proven to have a real, sustained interest in taking photos over time.
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Dear Fred,

You no doubt know the story of the man who got a job backstage at Le Crazy Horse (the same story is told of the old Moulin Rouge, and for all I know of some of the Las Vegas clubs as well -- anywhere there are lots of beautiful and scantily clad or nude girls).

The first month was heaven.

The second month was hell.

After that, it was just a job.

Yes, there are always more cameras/lenses that I want, but increasingly, I want ONLY the ones that do what my existing kit does, only more so. Thus an M8.2 to replace the M8 (quieter); a Noctilux and at least one of the new Summiluxes (faster).

Otherwise I buy almost nothing unless I can make money out of it. I prefer just to take pictures. It's a job. But it's a job I really like.

Cheers,

Roger
 
For me the answer could be simple - whatever else I've tried (and some of the tries have been long and yet reasonably successful) I always come back to photography. It's always there, either in the background or right in my face.

Trying to figure out WHY it's always there is more difficult, but today's answer to the question is that the moments that I capture, even if they are of someone else's experience, are MY moments. This is my construct and defines the place where I exist (am I getting too philosophical here?). No-one else has it quite like this and even if no-one else appreciates it quite as I do, at least it's unique. For me that gives it value. A social constructionist might tell you that everyone's world is constructed by themselves. What photography does is give you the chance to share that world with someone else.
 
Hi, Ruben...

Maybe it is too early for me to be as introspective as you are in this thread but, for me, my photography has nothing to do with my "virtual" life. I have enough problems with my real life.:angel:

Cameras, lenses, etc. do not get in the way for me. Rather, I continue to search for the right combination for the photographic challenges ahead and it can be fun, but I spend a lot of time with my gear even when I am not taking photos. Why? Because my familiarity with controls, reading my logged information from my moleskine, and the resulting knowledge of my gear actually make the gear more "invisible" and I can concentrate on what I am doing.

Freedom of expression? Yeah, I suppose so. I enjoy the challenge of photography and learning, and yes, I do enjoy the final image. But, I also would like to have my images given to my grandchildren so they can see what my eyes saw at the moment of capture. And their grandchildren, my descendants, will have a connection with me and my dear bride long after we are gone. I still marvel at the photos from my parents' old boxes of pictures taken almost 100 years ago...I get so much information from them but I feel a direct connection with them. Similar to discovering foundations at an archeological dig, I suppose. Gee, did I just say that? Now I am beginning to feel like a dinosaur.

Well, enough introspection, I have to go deal with my real life. Bleh...

Thanks again for you thoughts, Ruben. You are appreciated.
 
Fred Burton said:
Photography is an accessible visual art for everyone because it can translate that 3d world into 2d without talent or years of training. Buy a digital P&S, point it at a person, push the button, and incredibly sophisticated technology finds the face, focuses on it, waits until it is smiling and takes a perfectly focused, perfectly exposed 2d capture of it.

Some of us choose old, flakey, manual cameras that require constant fiddling with, but raise our value of the experience and the ultimate photos because of the struggle.

Few of us have proven to have a real, sustained interest in taking photos over time. Except for a pure collector with lots of money, actually taking photos is just a justification for buying cameras, in many cases, which is our real interest.

It's paradoxical. My bag that contains my working kit has at least $20,000 worth of digital SLR gear in it. I shoot dozens, and some days, hundreds of photos with it each day. I do my best work with it. But beyond keeping the gear clean, I have no real interest in the stuff as objects of desire. They are tools. The best tools I've ever worked with, but tools.

Then there are the dozens of other cameras. Leicas, film SLR's, MF cameras, 4x5. I use this stuff to take photos far less often than the digital stuff. I don't take better photos with the old stuff (although I shot film most of my life). I don't get GAS over digital cameras, though. I get GAS for Leicas and Hasselblads and Eastman 2D 8x10's, in the last case a pretty impractical camera for me as I no longer have a darkroom to work with large format. But I bought another recently, one which I probably, realistically, will never use. But it is beautiful and mechanical and holds such potential. So these objects I buy and don't heavily use don't inspire me to take photos as much as inspire me to acquire more pretty things.

Ruben, I don't know about validating my virtual life. I'm not even sure I completely understand what you are trying to say. But I agree that photography - actually going out and taking photos - has for many years provided me with a means of expression that exceeds that of anything else I've done (music, other forms of art, etc). But I'm very bipolar with the whole "photography" thing.

Sometimes, for me, if I'm not careful, cameras get in the way of photography. They become the end rather than the means.
Click to expand...


Hi Fred,

With due exception to your assertion that few of us mantain a real interest in photography along time, your post takes me to one of the aspects I did not wanted to enter as it may be too intrusive.

BTW, and excuss me again, your reference to "anyone with a point and shoot", sandwiched with the other one about the long time interest, both seem to point we are refering to different crowds. Me at least was refering to the, let's say, advanced amateur or the one in its way to be, and the accomplished amateur. I was not refering to the large crowds owning a P&S.
And this being the case I do think we do maintain a long time interest in photography and tryied what is behind it.

OK, so far for clearing disagreement in case it exists. But I reprinted here your whole post, because I find it very representative of what I wanted to say and didn't.

Let's imagine our gear bag is our virtual home. The perfect home to deal with the real world we all need but not all of us had in fact, since either at childhood or maturity - it was beyond our control.

Surely some of us have changed bags feeling real comfort with no one along time. Our change of bags and/or gear represent in my mind a deep need to decorate our virtual home. It is not that the final image is not important. It is that having a beautifull virtual home is very much a part or our need.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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Roger Hicks said:
Otherwise I buy almost nothing unless I can make money out of it. I prefer just to take pictures. It's a job. But it's a job I really like.
Click to expand...

Me too. Except it is a job at times and a passion (but not an obscession) the rest of the time. (I enjoy good cameras but have mostly used the same few pieces of gear consistently for more than 25 years.)
 
Photography is a passion that depends on my creativity rather than on the efforts of others. That is, I was a restrained album collector throughout much of my departed youth, but my obsessions and interests focused on the output of others, whether early Bowie or Elvis Costello.

Photography did not evolve into a central pursuit until turning 40, just over three years ago, although a nascent interest is possibly traceable to the late 1970s, when I played around with a Kodak Instamatic.

Since jumping in, the cameras have shifted from DSLR to film only, with the manual aspects of photography becoming increasingly compelling. More recently, a regrettable focus on gear has developed, mostly coaxed by an attraction to the Leica M2, but that is for later.

If there is actually anything to express remains unclear, and occasionally, the absence of an artistic or socioeconomic cause is missed, as such inspiring forces could likely provide some guidance while wandering the streets; after all, it is only a hobby, and one without a clear agenda.

That said, a confident sense of aesthetics coupled with visual stimulation serves as the principal stimulus for pushing the shutter button. Still, the effort to effectively recreate these witnessed images in respect to my expectations presents a perennial challenge. That's OK, as the constant struggle to improve is, in this particular case, enjoyable.

Egoistically, it is gratifying to derive pleasure from something I produced, and compliments from friends and family are, of course, always welcome…I'll remain happily obtuse to any of their obligated disingenuousness.
 
I do not collect antique wristwatches because I'm unsure of what time it is.

I take photographs because I like that form of expression. I collect (if I may be excused for calling my assortment of vintage mutts a 'collection') cameras because I enjoy that, too. I like the historic as well as the photographic aspects of collecting. And one informs the other. Photography should be shashin-do, not shashin.
 
I take photographs to create something. To express my own little humble vision of...things.
I did a lot of painting and drawing, interspersed with periods of photography, but over the years have felt constricted by painting. The weighty history and tradition has got me down so far i can barely pick up a brush and nothing I can think of is fresh.

Photography has always been a pleasure becasue it is so damn simple, you go out and find what strikes you and expose a frame. mostly its a failure, but I am at the stage where the failiures are usually interesting as well; and I didnt lose much when I pushed the button. Cartier Bresson said something about quick sketches...and I have always related to that.

Image making - but for me it is unlike painting, in that is created by an interface with real life, with its accidents of the moment, and its inifinte variety. Also i have always had a constant fascination with other people...a mild and humble social exploration on one hand and a form of Found Art on the other, and throw into the mix my own particular thoughts on what to put a frame around and when to push the button, and you have an extremely simple form of artistic expession. It may be more technical minded than other art forms...say sculpture, but the utter simplicity of it all is what keeps it alive for me.
The equipment is of less interest to me than I suppose others, but which isnt to say I didnt go through the phase of owning several camera bodies and a battery of lenses.
I got to this site through searching for some information on a little rangefinder I had bought so I could hopefully be a bit more discrete and free myself up from my SLR days, and gentlemen, I have stayed becasue of your photographs.

Rueban, - who said - most of the unhappyness in the world stems from the inability of a man to be able to sit in a room quietly? (or something like that.) - I think you could say the same thing about most art.
 
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Photography is like singing, anyone can sing and they might sound good to themselves but very few become rock stars or famous.

Realizing that sad reality and the odds and still going for it, risking safety, comfort and money is either foolhardy or the sign of an obsession.

these matters have to be resolved inside a photographer's mind. I always ask myself, is this for me? should i continue? am i wasting my time/money? this is too hard - is it worth it?
 
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