Why are you a photographer?

I'm a photographer first because I have something to say visually and that is the medium that best fits that vision. I work professional as the base (day job in a way) shooting advertising/commercial work and have been doing it full time since 1986. That pays for everything so it feeds the family etc. It is usually a collaboration between other creatives so that work is not all mine. It is ultimately the clients. We all work to the goal of exceeding out clients expectations consistently.

My personal work is what I do the commercial work for and that feeds my soul. It is all mine.
 
I photograph because it keeps me sane. Its a pressure relief valve in my head (somewhere). Because of this outlet, this voice, it is the channel for so many of the things I find interesting and value in life. It is my playground.
 
I am a photographer because it's what I like to do. After a life of always having to be doing something other than what I really wanted to, it's great to be able to have a creative outlet with no one to answer to. That's because at this late stage, I don't plan on going pro (again).

PF
 
I am a photographer because I enjoy creating something visual and am too lazy to practice painting until I get good at it.
 
I am a photographer because It is my way of defining my personal being and recording my history. I am also a driven perfectionist, and always seeking to improve my technique, especially how I develop and scan/print my negatives. I know what looks right to me and am now confident in my ability despite the fact that my personal vision may not suit others. I do it for Me, and if others like it, then that is a huge plus.
 
I started with my Great Aunts handed down Kodak Instamatic 50 around the age of five and discovered I like to look at small portions of the world at a time. That hasn't ever really changed.

I also discovered, much like photomoof, that art was particularly popular with girls and not so much with boys which pretty much swayed my university course choices (such a shallow teen,) I also checked the figures on male to female student ratios at various uni's...the smart kids checked reputations, student to lecturer ratios etc...which may be why I am where I am now:D

Finally I find it helps me to connect with and understand (though sometimes not) all these other people that are around me. Some individuals are wonderful, others complete tossers, some groups fantastic, others weird, dangerous or just dull. If I didn't have photography to help me I think I may struggle generally. Oh, and I'm a photographer for work too...probably because I had too much fun at uni and didn't realize I could have made a mint in banking and retired at forty with a set of a la carte Leicas, an orange wife that doesn't love me, a young girlfriend who swears she does, a bright green Lambo and a dissolved nasal septum from a stupendous coke habit...nah, I'd rather be poor and arty;) Nope, rich and arty...
 
I like cinema and painting, and the real world, which was always so vivid and precious to me as a child when I got new glasses, to replace the pair that were pretty scratched up over the previous year. My earlier childhood in another country was preserved in photographs under glass on my mother's dressing table, and I wanted to make pictures like those. I started at 12 and kept that interest through the years, finally moving to exploration of light and shapes about 7 years ago when I was 48. Now I have to photograph, have to be out with a camera, immersed in the process of looking at the world near work and home, examining the light, seeing what changed from yesterday, discovering gems I've walked past a hundred times before.
 
More realistically ... the importance of expressing yourself through art of any form cannot be over stated in my opinion. The penny dropped for me about eight years ago and I picked up a camera and began to take photographs of the things I saw around me.

I have a tumultuous personaity and art through photography is the oil on my own churning seas.
 
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