The Habitual Photographer, Nature or Nurture

[JimG]

With all this discussion of dis n' dat regarding what are the most valid subjects of discussion here I started to question why people get so worked up about what they value in photography.
I was brought up in an environment of cameras, and photography. My uncle was Howard King who's work was often published by the Sierra Club. My sister was married to a Bay Area film maker. And my father was a Zeiss/Leica nut. With all these male-role type influences in my life it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to this same insanity.
So what did it for you? Why not express yourself by writing or drag racing? Was it Nature (the way you are) or Nurture (how you were brought up)?

 

[wintoid]

I've always been a technologist messing with art. I have no pretensions of being a great artist. I live in a small flat and my previous "hobby" was making music, which I pursued relentlessly for many years, accumulating all sorts of exciting old synthesizers and so on. I think like many people here I have the "collector" gene.

The arrival of my daughter meant I had no time, and no space. The synths were sold, the cameras were bought. Photography is a hobby that's very "life-friendly" I think. I've done things and gone places I would never have visited if it weren't for photography, and my family is glad we did those things.

It all started when I forgot to take my camera into the delivery room...

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

For me it was the lack of being able to draw and record what i saw and felt. I struggled with drawing and painting because i saw it as an additive process. I was constantly frustrated by not being able to build up the image the way i saw it - photography on the other was and still is for me a reductive process in that the camera records all the information and from that point on you work to reduce that amount of information to create the image. I really admire those whose work starts from a blank canvas.

 

[clarence]

For me it was the lack of being able to draw and record what i saw and felt. I struggled with drawing and painting because i saw it as an additive process. I was constantly frustrated by not being able to build up the image the way i saw it - photography on the other was and still is for me a reductive process in that the camera records all the information and from that point on you work to reduce that amount of information to create the image. I really admire those whose work starts from a blank canvas.

I never found the words to express what you just said. It is the same for me.

Clarence

 

[lubitel]

I have always been painting and drawing. To photography I came a few years ago after college, more or less because I hardly have time to paint, but a camera can always be with me.

 

[sf]

For me. . . I never really had any photographic influence at all. I think I always liked architecture, so I got interested in taking pictures of nice works that I saw on road trips. I bought a camera for that purpose.

I sat for my senior photo, for high school, and found that the cameras the photographer was using were interesting to me. I asked lots of questions and went online that night and looked at cameras. I bought a Mamiya 645E pretty soon after.

So, nature, I guess.

I did own a Nikon N65 for a bit as well. Actually for a couple years. That would have actually been my first serious camera. After that came the Mamiya 645E, and that format really drove me into photography.

I am the only photographer or photo-hobbyist in my entire generation.

 

[RML]

My reasons and influences have been on my mind for a while too. 🙂

http://shardsofphotography.blogspot.com/2006/05/grandpa.html

http://shardsofphotography.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-father-and-i.html

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

Remy i'm not usually a fan of web blogs as such, but yours i'd bookmarked some time back as i admire the honesty in your writing.

 

[bmattock]

I got into photography in High School - I found the process of photography coupled with processing my own B&W film interesting, and I liked the fact that a man with a camera in his hand can just go where he wants - people don't question why he is there (less true these days).

I kept taking photographs while I was in the military - I enjoyed sharing the places I went and the people I met with my family and friends and brothers-in-arms.

I stopped for twenty years while this thing called life got in the way.

I started again because I got a job as a road warrior and wanted to again chronicle my globe-trotting.

In the past several years, I have discovered that I may (may, as in possibly) have some minor talent in expressing myself artfully via photograph. This came as a surprise to me; I can't draw, I can't sing, my only creative expression has been through my writing until recently.

And I still have dreams in which I relive that portion of my childhood, which I had nearly forgotten, when my late father moonlighted as a private investigator. He had a darkroom in the basement and would let me watch him work. I remember his face in the saferoom light, I remember the snub-nose .38 he kept in his pocket. He used a 127 roll-film camera and made 8x10 prints - just like the movies.

Now I use my photography to perturb and annoy. It is a lot of fun. And I like to twiddle with camera bits and bobs. I'm not that good at it, but I was a disaster trying to fiddle with the innards of wristwatches.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[vicmortelmans]

For me an important aspect of photography has become to archive people, situations and events. I certainly didn't start taking photographs (when about 12-15y) with that intention, but now it often drives me.

When I take a picture, I often think "what elements should I include, that after X years will cause me to be surprised, remembering how the environment/people looked like". Same goes for city views, which tend to change dramatically over the years due to urbanisation works.


Certainly, looking at old city views (let's say 20-30y ago or older), I'm amazed each time over and over, how different things looked at that time and how much is forgotten.

Maybe it's my weak memory that needs support...

Groeten,


Vic

 

[Sparrow]

I have always been painting and drawing. To photography I came a few years ago after college, more or less because I hardly have time to paint, but a camera can always be with me.

Me too, just want or need to show others exactly what I see

 

[oftheherd]

In my case I guess both. My father was an avid amature photographer. I tried to follow whith him while I was quite young and enjoyed it but wasn't too serious. I got a little more serious my first year of college before entering the military. After that I mostly just snapshot places I was, until I became an investigator, then did some evidence photography but only the minimum required. My first time in Korea I got disgusted with the results of the office Kodak Instamatic.

From then on I got more serious. I read everything I could get my hands on about photography, experimented, got more gear, photographed all major crime scenes and travel with a new appreciation of how to make it work, gaining something of a reputation amoung my peers ( in the land of the blind ... 😀 ).

I don't take as many photos as before, but still enjoy it when I do.

 

[Kin Lau]

Can't sing, dance, draw... so photography's working out pretty decently so far 🙂

 

[pesphoto]

Been taking photos since I was about 11 years old. My dad built a darkroom after he took a class and Ive been hooked ever since. Nothing seems as natural to me as when Im out wandering around taking pictures of whatever I want. When shooting, I feel the same sense of calm and just being myself now, at 39, as I did at 11years old.