I've been reading photography blogs lately... a lot of them. Some are purely technical, mostly concerning equipment reviews or photography techniques. Others are from professional photographers (those making money in the medium), and still others are about travel and what to photograph while you are there. All of these hold an interest for me for various reasons. I like travel. I like equipment. I like technique. But what has really interested me lately is why we photograph the things we do.
I tend to categorize photographers in one of four ways, and one can very well be any of these at a given time:
After writing this and reviewing my categories, I realized the differences are all about control, not about who is better or more qualified or makes money or, quite frankly, any other irrelevant hierarchy that attempts to "rate" the value of the photographer. There is no right or wrong path. As photographers, we capture that one moment that makes a difference, that makes a statement visually and emotionally. There may be issues with controlling the environment and the amount of preparation changes from one type of photographer to another, but in the end, it’s all about communication. While the casual photographer may not realize it, they are creating the images that people will see most often, now and in the future. With the advent of social media, we are inundated with these kinds of images and the story of our lives will most probably be seen through these lenses. Only time will tell. And there’s nothing wrong with this, taking a snapshot, grabbing the camera phone and quickly recording what is there... some amazing shots can result. This kind of photography gives a hint of an emotion, a record of a place once experienced. It isn't created to be judged on the basis of composition or lighting style, but to show you've done something and it has been recorded. I suppose people want to get “likes” on social media posts, and there is a judgement of a sort there, but for the most part we just want to record our experiences in some way, to somehow experience the moment again, and we can do that very easily now that digital cameras are everywhere. I do it all the time whenever I travel with my family. I want to remember a place and a quick shot is all I really need. Sometimes amazing shots result, but for the most part, these images are just for me to remember my experience. I'm not trying to communicate anything else to anyone else. It just makes a difference to me. I guess you could call it a “communication to self” for future reference. In a studio, the photographer is concerned with posing a model or placing objects for best effect, of lighting to reflect the mood and environment they wish to communicate. They must understand their equipment and control the environment. This takes time and patience as well as planning for just the right mood, just the right effect. The studio environment only has what the photographer brings to it, and their knowledge and attention to detail create a statement, manipulate emotions, produce a vision, seemingly from nothing. What they photograph is dependent on what subject they bring into the studio, whether a model or product or snowflake. They construct what amounts to a communication of hyper-reality, difficult to distinguish from what is apparently real, through make-up, posing, and lighting. That is their art and craft, their reason to create. In environmental photography, you often have to scout an area and see where the light falls, wait for the right time or the right season to get the shadows and the color just right. It is difficult to modify light out in the field and if you do, it has to look like you didn’t. You don’t have the luxury of studio controls... you can’t tell the sun to move a few inches to the right please! Your days may start early and end late, and you can never predict the weather or the circumstances. This takes patience and understanding, and sometimes, a little luck. The photographers vision is highly dependent on the environment they find themselves in, but also on their knowledge of that environment and how it can be photographed. Like a studio photographer, they must bring with them anything used to make the image as well as their technical expertise to control the seemingly uncontrollable. It is this sense of wonder, this non-predictability that drives their creation. Event photographers have a whole allotment of issues to deal with. They are usually outdoors like their landscape counterparts, so all those issues arise. They also have to be personable in order to communicate with their subjects who may or may not be in the mood to be photographed. They may have to deal with specific image requirements expected of them, especially if this is a paying job. They have to be constantly on the lookout for place and position, lighting and shadow, angles and activity. One wrong choice and you have a missed opportunity. If everything falls into place, in that one fleeting moment, magic happens. Their driving force is the rush of movement, the engagement of being there, capturing the mood of a time and place. Whatever personal circumstances brought us to the photographic medium, the reason we remain seems straightforward... a need to communicate our vision, to ourselves and to others. We may be in it for the money, but let’s face it... there are easier ways to make money. We may photograph to capture a moment in our lives, but the image is only a memory, the moment has past. We may want to communicate the wonders of the world, but the photograph is at best a copy, an interpretation of that wonder. With these seeming limitations, why do we photograph the things we do? I would propose that every artist, regardless of medium, has an inner drive to communicate, and the process we choose, the style we develop, and even the limits we place on ourselves, mold that communication for the world to see and experience through our art. Our medium explains the world and helps us to understand it through our photographic process. Maybe every artist is just seeking for an answer, even if unsure of the question. And maybe that is the magic of it all... I certainly hope that it is.
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