What is the Point of Photography ?

LCSmith said:
I think it's a personal question, David, which makes it interesting. I find it a bit odd, the reduction of personal responses to utility and "polls". This isn't one of those "what 35 LTM lens is your favorite" questions. This question is about biography and experience, even about unity.

As for Socrates, his death was most enviable.
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But surely the point is one singular description that covers all the individual replies and includes and explains the contradictions. When all's said and done some people would say that photography is BS'ing on a large scale and others would be even ruder and use shorter words. But the all encompassing point would explain it.

What we have so far is everyone's individual points but no consensus. We need that to get to the point and to avoid Deep Thought's (Mk 1) view of philosophy which was to make money on chat shows...

Regards, David

PS And Socrates death was like being made to drink disinfectant, surely? And he was punished for asking awkward questions (another link with the disinfectant saga).
 
We can use photography as a tool for self-actualization. When we make art we can be remaking ourselves. Photography helps us redefine our relationship to consensus reality. Documentation, immitation and voyeurism get in the way of that.
 
Schuter said:
...
For me, the magic of photography is that I can look at an image I shot years ago, and it triggers the same emotions I experienced the moment I shot it. The memory nearly becomes palpable—I can almost feel the stifling heat as I recall the dark history inside the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana, or smell Ivar’s fish and chips on Seattle’s Pier 54 as a light rain falls on my face amid the squawks of hungry seagulls. Good literature and music can transport me in similar ways, but for me an image is more powerfully evocative.

It appears that several of us stopped in our visual tracks as we noticed the profile photo of Tom in Tuulikkis’s first post in this thread. I never met Tom, and certainly don’t have the history of interaction with him that many of you have, but just seeing that little informal portrait caused me to pause and experience some cognitive dissonance, at least until I read further. Then I smiled. One tiny photo did that. I imagine that she has thousands of photos of Tom, just as Helen likely has thousands of photos of Eric. I hope photography allows them to relive moments through memories as it does me. If so, then it was time and silver well spent.

Wishing you all well,
Brian
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Very well expressed, thanks.
 
For me, probably a sub-conscious connection to my *Dad who was a serious amateur portrait/wedding photographer.

*He passed at 99 a few years ago. I found a box of his old negatives, beautiful B&W prints, and some Kodachrome slides from the 1940's I believe. Someday, I may scan and present a little dedication here to share with you all.
 
raydm6 said:
For me, probably a sub-conscious connection to my *Dad who was a serious amateur portrait/wedding photographer.

*He passed at 99 a few years ago. I found a box of his old negatives, beautiful B&W prints, and some Kodachrome slides from the 1940's I believe. Someday, I may scan and present a little dedication here to share with you all.
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That would be a fine thing to see.
 
David Hughes said:
But the all encompassing point would explain it.

What we have so far is everyone's individual points but no consensus. We need that to get to the point and to avoid Deep Thought's (Mk 1) view of philosophy which was to make money on chat shows...

Regards, David

PS And Socrates death was like being made to drink disinfectant, surely? And he was punished for asking awkward questions (another link with the disinfectant saga).
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Zeal for precision is a quality I admire very much. Perhaps a "communis opinio" will surface; but if it should not surface, the exercise would not have been in vain.

As for the death of Socrates, who knows? Some scholars go so far as to say the Phaedo is entirely made-up. Still, even as the prison guard announces the imminence of his execution, The Socrates is in good spirits and ready for conversation with his friends. Enviable!
 
Perhaps a "communis opinio" will surface
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A common opinion on this subject will never occur. Socrates was condemned to death and then forced to kill himself. Hardly enviable. To gain a better understanding of the inhumanity of the death penalty, I recommend: "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky. Have a nice weekend! Cheers, OtL
 
Out to Lunch said:
A common opinion on this subject will never occur. Socrates was condemned to death and then forced to kill himself. Hardly enviable. To gain a better understanding of the inhumanity of the death penalty, I recommend: "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky. Have a nice weekend! Cheers, OtL
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Enjoy your lunch!
 
Memories, light the colors of my mind
Misty, water-colored memories of the way we were.
Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another of the way we were.
Can it be it was all so simple then
Or has time written every line
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we?
Could we?

Just a song from the 1970’s that invoke memories in my mind. That’s what the photographs I make do. I would sometimes tell a client who hired me, then eventually becoming friends with me, that you may not totally like the photographs I make today but you will in 10 years!
 
LCSmith said:
Zeal for precision is a quality I admire very much. Perhaps a "communis opinio" will surface; but if it should not surface, the exercise would not have been in vain.

As for the death of Socrates, who knows? Some scholars go so far as to say the Phaedo is entirely made-up. Still, even as the prison guard announces the imminence of his execution, The Socrates is in good spirits and ready for conversation with his friends. Enviable!
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Hmmm, by today's standards would he have any friends? He was lower or working class, a democrat and a convicted criminal...

Regards, David

* And a pagan to boot.
 
David Hughes said:
Hmmm, by today's standards would he have any friends? He was lower or working class, a democrat and a convicted criminal...

Regards, David

* And a pagan to boot.
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It's worse than that, David. The charges against him were atheism and corrupting children. It is only Plato's genius that saved him from complete ignominy. I do think his death was noble and that is not a very controversial opinion (nor is it really the subject of this thread; apologies, pun intended).
 
Photography has excited me since I was a teenager. When I was doing my undergraduate education in Iraq, I took photos of some people I did not like much. It helped me with stress release during the years of graduate studies. It is a way for me to document life around me. No philosophy.
 
Photography doesn't really have a point. Photography is the point.

And as Oblio proved in the film, "You don't have to have a point to have a point."
 
I see photography as an embodiment of the Japanese notion of mono no aware, which is an appreciation of the transience of things. We might not have an equivalent idiom in English, but I think we all get the feeling when we look at the results of our shutter pushes.
 
LCSmith said:
It's worse than that, David. The charges against him were atheism and corrupting children. It is only Plato's genius that saved him from complete ignominy. I do think his death was noble and that is not a very controversial opinion (nor is it really the subject of this thread; apologies, pun intended).
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Hmmm, and Aristophanes "Clouds" but that just shows how important PR work is. Interesting how many terrorist leaders and so on become respectable once they are in charge. But that's a half full or half empty example; or - in this case - a terrorist or freedom fighter split...

Getting back to my original comment I was really thinking about that well known advice to students and forum users to read the question carefully and give an appropriate answer. And I think we've given too many answers with no attempt to summarise as "the point" of photography. And I don't want the young lady to be disappointed.


Regards, David
 
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