Someone asked me today why I take photographs?

Keith

Keith

The best camera is one that still works!
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I have a friend named Mick who has a lot of problems ... he suffers from quite severe depression and has been battling drug addiction his entire adult life ... but he's a lovely guy and I have a lot of time for him. He's in his mid fifties now and has a face that is a proverbial road map of a life of substance abuse and hard living.

I asked him today if I can photograph him in a specific location some time next week. He has no problem with the idea but did ask me why I would want to do this ... and why I actually take photos in the first place? The only real answer I could give him was something attributed to Gary Winogrand that he supposedly said when asked a similar question:

"I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed."

Mick was pretty happy with that answer and I have to say for me it fits ... how about you?
 
This quote by Robert Frank is as close as anything for me -

"I’m always looking outside, trying to look inside. Trying to tell something that’s true.
But maybe nothing is really true. Except what’s out there."

-Robert Frank
 
I also photograph things to see what they look like photographed. And I am trying to stop Time in its tracks if only for a moment, so I can look at it and see what was there; my memory is leaky.

With best regards.

Pfreddee(Stephen)
 
I photograph to test the old crappy gear I buy all the time...
Just kidding, on a good day I do it for a better understanding of what's happening around me. And there's a documentary aspect to it, as well. I like to have some pieces of evidence for my memories.
 
Well, I do photograph to try out the crappy gear I buy!

But essentially, I'd say I do it to see if I can capture to my satisfaction the image I have in my head.
 
Winogrand comes as close as anthing I could come up with, I do believe. Also, for me, it's the end of the process and its' attendant 'joy/sorrow' when I find out that I did or didn't get what I thought I saw. Make any sense? Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

Kenny
 
Someone asked me today why I take photographs?
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There are quite a number of reasons. One listed below, I believe is important.

We are social creatures.

As Aristotle said, we all are searching for happiness. He said, “happiness depends on ourselves.”

We can sometimes achieve happiness showing how we view the world around us. Photography is one medium that can be chosen for this.

When a compliment, that-a-boy is recognized by others, doesn't that make you happy?
 
Good question - I ask myself this often when I look at the packs and packs of prints I have sitting in boxes - some that I haven't looked at in years - to say nothing of the days worth of digital photographs that I've never looked at! It makes my own photography seem more like a compulsion with no useful output.

But in the end about 10% is shooting for a long-term project (currently a plant ID book), and the rest is just to capture beauty in nature and those people I care about. In the long-run I hope that I live an interesting and worthwhile enough life that at least one person will want to view at least some of my work after I'm gone. Here's hoping slides are more archival than hard drives...
 
There are so many wonderful and interesting (not necessarily wonderful) things around us in this world and capturing those that have some meaning to me in still photographs is satisfying.

Except for other people who also like photography or some form of art, I sense that everyone else wonders why I do it and am so interested in it.
 
When I'm feeling good about my photography skills, I would tell you that I'm doing it to create something that transcends my existence. Something that hopefully affects other people in some meaningful way when I'm gone.

However, most of the time, I feel like stausauser.
 
"...Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”

Graham Greene
 
When I'm testing gear - either new to me or returned from repair, the test subjects are always the same, and in controlled lighting (so exposure settings don't vary). These boring things are of no interest beyond just knowing that the equipment works well.

My photographs are mainly of my children at this time. I want to document that this is how they looked, behaved, and felt at this exact point in time in their lives. Photography is unsurpassed at documentation, capturing and freezing forever a thin slice of the continuum of time as it flows on.

Yes, I could pretend to be trying to make art. However, my results show that I'm not making any art. Just personal documentation for my family.
 
Vince Lupo said:
"...Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”

Graham Greene
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I agree, but it seems most do it with drugs and alcohol... ;)
 
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