Someone asked me today why I take photographs?

[Shac]

While Winogrand's statement fits me most of the time - but there are others when I ask what will I do with all the images (I always assume my "heirs" will deep six 'em when I'm gone)

 

[ReeRay]

How else can I remember and re-vist all the interesting things I see daily if I don't photograph them? But more importantly, and as someone else mentioned, photography taught me to see, and not just look.

 

[Richard G]

Main reason. I have family, we take pictures at home and around. Nice to check them later.

Second reason.
I was living in USSR which is gone and I have almost no pictures.
I was visiting and working in Europe before it went to Unions style.
And only few pictures.
Even England, speaking Friday language, could you imagine they have no Stella in every pub as of now? I tasted old good England, but just dozen or so pictures.
Now I'm trying to catch it up in Canada. It is changing way too fast here.
I like to document farm lands, old houses, Main Streets and Canadian factories before they are gone.

One very famous Soviet time movie is based on true situation then every building at every city was the same like. Same going on in Canada right now.
Same in Vancouver, same in Toronto. No name, no neighborhood, no sun above the church high-raised slams. In terms of photography, of course...

In few words, it is nice to have pictures of something you have seen, but it is gone.

I don't think what Fred Herzog did it on porpoise, but because of him we knew how Vancouver used to look like....

This is beautiful and from the heart. Thanks.

 

[imhere]

I do it because I like taking photos and also viewing other peoples photographs. 🙂

 

[George Bonanno]

It's none of anyone's God damn business.

 

[Harry S.]

Photography is an easy way to satisfy creative urges.

 

[RichC]

To add to my previous reason, a modified version of Winograd's quote:

"I photograph to show what something looks like photographed."

I don't like the original quote either - perhaps mine sits better with those who also don't like the original - which is meaningless to many photographers as we visualise photographs before taking them, so we are rarely surprised. But we are keen to show others our vision.

Keith, isn't this more apt - as I'm sure you too know how most of your photos will turn out?

 

[__jc]

In reference to Winogrand's widely quoted statement in the original post, the more I have read about Winogrand, especially from John Szarkowski and Tod Papageorge, the more I have come to believe it was pretty much a throwaway line. Winogrand was a man who thought very deeply about the world and was acutely aware of the various forces that drove him to continually take photographs. Having said that, the phrase itself might well contain the inscrutable code by which he hoped to decipher those drives.

For me, photography is my creative outlet and passion. Taking pictures helps me to understand the world and my place in relation to it. It allows me access to a multitude of things to which I would not have access without photography. It is the drive to travel, to see, become curious about and strive to understand things that are otherwise outside my experience. It is an almost-always guaranteed gateway to stimulation and fulfilment.

I think I can see why Winogrand wanted his answer to be succinct!

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Because if I don't, parts of my world go away forever, and I am not smart enough to build a time machine to revisit them.

It's none of anyone's God damn business.

So far as I'm concerned, these are the two best replies, so far.

 

[Harry S.]

The second one seems too bitter for me personally to apply much praise to.

Remember most people ask because they are genuinely interested and curious...

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

The second one seems too bitter for me personally to apply much praise to.

I didn't read it as bitter. Rather I read as a simple statement that could be translated as: "if you need to ask, I doubt you'd understand any answer I can give you".

I'm sure George will put me right if I've misrepresented him. 😀

 

[nongfuspring]

To me photography at its best alienates the familiar and familiarises the alien. In other words a photograph is a tool for forcing whoever sees the image to think differently.

I think increasingly though, I'm also taking photos to try and remember things. I suppose because I'm starting to get older.

I think people put too much emphasis on the Winograd quote, IMO at best it's a non statement - it doesn't really mean anything, at worst it's a misrepresentation of a much more complicated (and interesting) rationale.

 

[thegman]

It's none of anyone's God damn business.

Seems harsh and unnecessary. If someone asked another person why they liked football, baseball, poker, sculpting, water skiing, they're all reasonable curiosities. Not sure why being asked why we enjoy something or want to do something should elicit such a defensive response.

 

[__jc]

So far as I'm concerned, these are the two best replies, so far.

I hadn't understood that it was a competitive thread. I thought that if each person gave what he/she considered to be an appropriate response regarding their own experience, it would make for an interesting discussion.

Good for you that you see things as a competition though.

 

[jippiejee]

From the perspective of the image, I like how framing reality with a camera allows me to create relationships between unrelated elements in a frame, like building new narratives.

From a more personal perspective, I like how photography motivates me to explore new spaces, and come into contact with new people. While being a somewhat shy person towards strangers, with a camera on me I seem to feel no hesitations about getting closer to what's strange and new.

 

[burancap]

I could snip a bit from just about everybody's posts. Too many to list at one time.

Why do I photograph? To think back about a "trigger" that keeps me going ... that can only be one thing. My first ever wet print coming to life in a college class too long ago. I have tried to recapture that magic moment -that feeling of primal creation from the darkness every day since. And it eludes me. Tomorrow? The next corner? The next roll? The next card? It is out there. I will feel it again.

 

[Charlie Lemay]

It's my spiritual practice, the way I exercise the part of me that suspects the world is not what it seems. My images remind me constantly that there is so much more going on in every moment than we allow ourselves to imagine. For me, photography proves what Einstein said about the quantum world applies equally to everyday life, "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." All photography is documentation, feedback on how we perceive the world we think we are in.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

I hadn't understood that it was a competitive thread. I thought that if each person gave what he/she considered to be an appropriate response regarding their own experience, it would make for an interesting discussion.

Good for you that you see things as a competition though.

Aaargghhhh! Sorry, I was being too flippant by far. 🙁

I should have put it that those were the two comments, up to that point, which expressed most closely what I felt.

grovel, grovel. :angel:

 

[Roger Hicks]

I do photography because it's the one thing that keeps me sane.

PF

Odd. That's never worked for me.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

It's none of anyone's God damn business.

Dear George,

This probably came across as angrier and more confrontational than you intended.

Cheers,

R.