Your own photos as an artform

[Jake Mongey]

Hi,
I was thinking on my birthday today at how my photography is an art form. This has stemmed from how my parents have given me little attention and left me to be lonely on my own throughout my life. Then on yet another ruined birthday by their selfishness I realized that the fact that I have captured other peoples loneliness is an expression of my own within my personal life.

Has anyone else had this sort of experience?

 

[Godfrey]

Jake,

Your photographs are certainly an expression of your vision and your emotions, which is the essence of art. Photography is a great way to develop that capability of expression and to redirect negative feelings and pain from your life's circumstance into the positive energy of creating art.

There is nothing more natural to me than to reach for my camera and go 'see what I can see' with it whenever my emotions in play, and not only when I'm sad or in pain. Doing that, with practice and thought, over time develops your personal vision and style.

So yes, yours is an experience shared by many who make art. Go with it, let it fulfill you and put you at peace; share it and find others to break the loneliness.

And Happy Birthday! Let go of the pain by picking up your camera and letting the pain flow out of you through it.

G

Astro Boy - Santa Clara 2015​

 

[robert blu]

Yes, it's all about our emotions...the desire to share them, or to save them for a different moment in our life...
robert

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I understand what you're going through. My parents never cared if I lived or died. Even now, when I am 40 yrs old, they tell me I am a failure.

I have a masters degree, have exhibited my work widely, and raised my own son by myself because his mother didn't want to be a mother. He's 19 and working on a computer science degree at Purdue on a scholarship.

Money and appearances are ALL that my family cares about. I've raised my son with different values than that.

Don't let the *******s grind you down. The world is full of them, including my parents and yours. Put your energies into your work, live your life for yourself, and try to make the world a better place. That's the best way to thumb your nose at those who have tried to drag you down.

 

[peterm1]

I think I have been one of the relatively lucky ones. Not too many inner demons (only the usual share). :^)

No in my case I grew up in a rural area and I recall that as a kid it was a bit lonely as we lived out of town. Which meant that I did not have lots of friends to interact with especially as it was not the practice back then for many kids to go to preschool, so my social interactions were a bit delayed. Possibly as a result of this I spent a lot of time reading and in artistic pursuits such as drawing - all things I could enjoy in my own company. Also I was adopted and very different in personality / disposition to my adoptive parents and siblings so maybe being self-reliant was a reaction to this. I know I always felt I did not quite belong and this made me determined to succeed (and escape to a better life). Nothing wrong with my parents, and I don't recall them doing anything to screw me up, they were just ordinary country folk, but very different to me.

When I became an adult, I put away childish things and concentrated on family, career - the usual stuff. It was only later in life that I grew more interest in artistic pursuits once more - this time, photography.

I don't feel particularly troubled but I do feel that the urge (which I still far from understand myself) to make images that speak to peoples' emotions is somehow a drive that may have something to do with my early life (Whats the old saying - "Give me the child till he is seven and I will give you the man)"

 

[Addy101]

Happy childhood here! I never think about my photography as art. I like to make my pictures the way I like them, in that sense they are an expression of my vision. But I don't think that the expression of your vision and your emotions is the essence of art. What is art is worth a philosophical discussion that takes more then just one post on a forum 🙄

It could very well be that the fact you have captured other peoples loneliness is an expression of your own loneliness within your personal life. On the other hand, I'm drawn to loneliness too while I had a happy childhood. Whatever the case, don't let them get you down and remember that haters gonna hate, hate, hate - even if they are family.

Hang in there and do the things that make you happy.

 

[daveleo]

Use your emotions to make your pictures.
Photograph your realities or photograph your fantasies, but imprint yourself in your pictures.

And .... a day late, I know but . . . . . Happy Birthday, Jake.

 

[johnnyrod]

Happy birthday Jake. You've got a good portfolio of stuff I'd say, the "Creative Work" examples are my favourites, but there are things you've got going on in the other collections as well, for sure. I admire people who can see a whole scene and pick out the part to take a good picture of.

So what's the deal with your birthday? People can be pretty thoughtless sometimes. As has been said above though, the world has quite a few of them around, and they can be pretty noisy sometimes. Pay them no heed and be your own man, your sort of people will aggregate to you.

 

[jsrockit]

Hi,
I was thinking on my birthday today at how my photography is an art form. This has stemmed from how my parents have given me little attention and left me to be lonely on my own throughout my life. Then on yet another ruined birthday by their selfishness I realized that the fact that I have captured other peoples loneliness is an expression of my own within my personal life.

Jake, happy birthday. It does get better though. Once you get away and figure out how to be happy on your own, you start to find people who truly love you and you figure out how to cut all of the BS out of your life.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Jake,

As others have said, Happy Birthday, and rest assured that being 16 is not all it is cracked up to be. We've all been there: I doubt many on RFF are younger than you. Your priorities, and the things you choose to photograph, are likely to change over the years. Let them. Try to hold on to what you want to do and be, rather than holding on what you once wanted to do and be; or for that matter, what your parents expect or expected you to do or be. Above all, do what is best for you. Don't be any more side-tracked than you have to be by acquiring "qualifications".

Cheers,

R.

 

[peterm1]

By the way Jake

I had not realized you are sixteen. Just understand that at 16 most of us are lonely, peed off and angry for at least some of the time. (Most of the time?) The vast majority of us grow out of it. My bet is you will too. I have not met your parents so I cant comment on how they treat you. But its also a given that most of us hate the way our parents are or how they treat us at some time when we are your age too.

Sounds like your photography is a form of therapy for you. Glad to hear it.

 

[daveleo]

I will add that, at 16, I was utterly miserable. Although my parents treated me like "the prince" (that has its price too), I could not wait to break out and have my own life doing things they would not approve of.

Well, as we old guys know now, time goes by, you move along, and things change.
Don't feel too alone, Jake.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Take it easy, Jake.
By 16 I didn't have Canon 7, mamiya c33 and sony a7, but only borrowed family FED-2 which was not in use...
Ko.

 

[mwoenv]

Jake, lots of times parents' uncaring behavior and not relating well even to their own children can be explained by what they had to contend with when they were growing up. We can tend to think of parents as all-knowing but they had to grow up with their parents' issues. Knowing something about your parents' childhood and your grandparents' may explain why they behave the way they do.

Such realization may ease the hurt, i.e., they can't help it, it's what they saw and learned and grew up with themselves and they know no better. Some are determined and overcome these negative ways when they have children so they don't repeat their parents' mistakes, but many just cannot, at least not completely.

I think everyone has to deal with this to some extent - there are no perfect relationships.

I think many creative, materialistic, and powerful people have this driving them to be the way they are. Expressing emotions through photography can be helpful to you and others who see your work.

 

[CMur12]

Hi Jake. Congratulations on your sixteenth birthday; I'm sorry that it hasn't been a happier occasion for you and that you feel lonely and neglected.

In spite of your difficulties, you are doing some meaningful things with your life. I'm amazed that one as young as you are has already built up so much knowledge and experience around photography, and that you are dedicated to film as a medium. If you are effectively capturing the loneliness you feel in your images and you are finding your own photographic style, I would consider that a great personal success.

I'm really pleased that you have joined us here at RFF and that you make meaningful contributions to our discussions. Stick with us, for you have friends here.

- Murray

 

[johnnyrod]

Hi Jake, think we might have got a little off topic, everyone wants to wish you well!

in my photography, what there is that could be called a style is I guess snapshots, or maybe it's called vernacular. Photography is the visual art equivalent of foraging for mushrooms, you go and see what you can find, so you only have some control over the subjects, then you choose how and if to shoot them. I guess I normally choose things that I want to see again, so they are mainly "happy" images. I do a bit of writing though, for myself, not sure I'd manage a whole book, and there I can identify strongly with what you mean. You have a space in which to explore some of those feelings or unexamined questions. The tedious crap of life does pile on top of it as you get older, but it's still there.

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Many Happy Returns, dear Jake!

And, Jake — you're not alone.

When I was your age, I often asked my boarding school's principal that I can stay, particularly on those weekends or holidays, when one was definitely expected to … no, I don't say «visit one's home» — I rather say … leave the school …

Oh, apart from the parents, one reason was: my school had a Photo lab! 🙂