Why do you take pictures?

[Dogman]

Just wondering.

Do you take pictures to remember places, people and events?

Do you take pictures because it's how you make a living?

Do you take pictures to post on social media?

Do you take pictures as a creative outlet?

Do you take pictures because you like using cameras?

Do you take pictures for some other reason?

I guess this could have been a poll but I would rather have explanations rather than multiple choices.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

To document and:

I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed. - Garry Winogrand

Read more: http://www.photoquotes.com/showquotes.aspx?id=22#ixzz5Scm0qhfm

 

[jbielikowski]

I was thinking about it recently, found no answer so I went outside to make some pictures. I don't know, I always liked it.

 

[bmattock]

Ever see an old photograph some inconsequential historical event, like a picnic or a barn dance or a parade or a festival? And it helps you to see how people lived, what things were like? Vernacular photography is what I do. Why? That's for later, long after I'm gone.

 

[peterm1]

I have been asking myself this question for a while now. I still do not have an answer. its a compulsion, that's all I can say.

 

[seany65]

I said something similar in a similar thread yonks ago.

Partly I like old silent films and I'd like to take photos reminiscent of them, partly 'cos I want to see if I can produce decent photos from old cameras that are different to each other and so need different methods and partly 'cos I like fiddling with things in my hands.

 

[bulevardi]

- because it zens me out!!
I get relaxed looking through a viewfinder, looking to a world a different way, making my own world through the lens.
It's like the world is standing still around me. I can get so concentrated that I don't even know what's happening around me.

- to document
- to remember buildings, people, moments on that specific timing.

- to share it with people who are involved, who like to see it, who care about the subject
- to share it online, forums, social media,... to get feedback, or simple to let others enjoy too.
- to show people that ugly urban cityscapes can be beautiful too, when I show them how I look at these things.

- to get in touch with other people who like these subjects I photograph and shared online.
- to get to know people and drink a cup of coffee with them

 

[bulevardi]

I feel like I'm transparent when I'm hidden behind the camera, like I'm hidden behind the beard that I slowly let grow nowadays.

 

[ruby.monkey]

I have three kids. i have endured years of sleepless nights; puke-filled days; turds where turds should never go; shouting; screaming; fights; wide-scale destruction of property and sanity.

One day they will bring home their new boyfriends and/or girlfriends, and on that day out will come the childhood photos, and my revenge will be complete.

That's why.

 

[ruby.monkey]

(I also need an excuse for all the gear cluttering up my office)

 

[capitalK]

I have determined recently that I am more interested n the process of taking photos than the end result. Being out in the open air and capturing a scene or a person. Usually it is a solitary endeavour, though sometimes I enjoy shooting with a friend or in a small group.

I don't often print my photos and rarely show them (physically).

Some make their way to Instagram, but mostly they exist only in my Print File sleeves and scanned to my hard drive.

 

[Bill Clark]

I like people to see happy and be happy with the photographs I make.

Simple.

Smiles!

 

[Pioneer]

Hey!

I bought this camera and...

What can I say?

 

[back alley]

i used to think it was the gear but that can't be...other hobbies have gear...bowling, fishing, shooting...and those hold no interest to me.
i like feeling artistic, creative, observant...

 

[emraphoto]

To communicate

 

[Roger Hicks]

I've been addicted for 50+ years and it's getting hard to stop.

Cheers,

R.

 

[bulevardi]

I've been addicted for 50+ years and it's getting hard to stop.

Cheers,

R.

"Hello, my name is Dirk, and I'm an addict too"

"Can I join your club?"

To communicate

Very well 🙂

 

[FranZ]

To record and share beauty:
- in people
- in nature
- in architecture

 

[RichC]

Hmm. No one's actually answered WHY – just statements of what they DO. "To record...", "to document...", "to see happy...", "to find out what something will look like photographed..." – but for what reasons?

What I do:
I photograph to explore what we humans do and how we react to the world we live in, and aim I to publicise my photographic explorations in exhibitions, talks, and books and magazines.

Why:
I hope to achieve a better understanding of human behaviour for myself and to communicate some of what I discover to others, as both a celebration and warning of our activity.

My photographic projects have explored junk food, technological obsolescence, our urge to collect things, our fear of death, and how we alter the environment of our cities over the centuries.

My current photographic project takes as its start the beginnings of broadcast radio on Christmas Eve 1906 in Brant Rock, Massachusetts, follows this radio wave as it traverses time and space over the past century and encounters tens of thousands of planets – many Earthlike – orbiting distant stars. I know what the project is about, but I'll leave it unsaid for now for you to decide... (We have discovered nearly 400 so-called "exoplanets" – a handful of which are Earthlike – to add to the mere eight of our solar system. The science of exoplanetology is still in its infancy: we now think our Milky Way galaxy alone contains 40 billion Earthlike planets. That 1906 radio broadcast will travel onwards until the universe dies. If we were on one of these planets – perhaps on a Christmas Eve – we would hear a scratchy violin playing "Silent Night".)

I've shown this before on RFF, but here's a selection from the 100 or so photos from my project "Insecta":

The statement reads: "The urge for humans to collect and classify is instinctive – a need to arrange the world around us into patterns, forming order from chaos. "Insecta" explores the function of museums and collections through natural history, examining photography’s role in framing memory, the pursuit of knowledge and the fallibility of conservation. The project is a memento mori, reflecting on the life and death of knowledge through fragments of ruined and forgotten collections."

 

[jsrockit]

Do you take pictures as a creative outlet?

Do you take pictures because you like using cameras?

Do you take pictures for some other reason?

Yes, as a creative outlet, and because I do like cameras as my artistic tool... or framing things quickly. It is strange, but there is something magical about transforming something simply by framing it.

I also do it for my mental health. Once I started going out and photographing a few days a week, I really felt better.