It’s a tough question: why do I make photographs? The answer is at once easy and not so easy, and over the years that I have mulled this question, the not so easy bit has not become any easier. Of one thing I am certain, however: the easy answer will remain unchanged through the rest of my life.
I love to make photographs.
That is the easy answer. It is the backdrop that frames the not so easy answer. But my attempts at coming up with the not so easy answer — the more detailed answer — have left me rather frustrated because I have been unable to articulate my love for this art form. Every attempt has felt like an exercise at stringing together a necklace by pulling out strands from a giant ball of spaghetti. Some strands break part way, some slide out effortlessly, and yet, each is an integral part of the whole that makes up the why of my love for making photographs. I hope this attempt yields a more coherent answer, so here goes.
Every time I am engaged in the activity — making photographs, editing, processing — I am transported into a different realm of experience. The word that best captures the experience: freedom. I feel, in the best sense of the word, untethered, free from worries, free to play with light and colors and knobs, free to create. I lose track of time. There is only the light, the camera, and the image I am attempting to record, in the best way I can. I am in flow.
I don’t recall at what point in time I fell in love with photography but when that revelation landed in my awareness it felt like a whole new world had opened up. Everywhere I looked there was an image waiting to be recorded. Everything was a great subject to be photographed. I started to notice things about my environment that I had never noticed before — dew drops strung like pearls on cobwebs, the dandelion by the sidewalk, the birds chirping in the branches, the squirrel scrambling down the fence. It was overwhelming, this richness of life. Beauty everywhere!
Every time I am engaged in the activity — making photographs, editing, processing — I am transported into a different realm of experience. The word that best captures the experience: freedom. I feel, in the best sense of the word, untethered, free from worries, free to play with light and colors and knobs, free to create. I lose track of time. There is only the light, the camera, and the image I am attempting to record, in the best way I can. I am in flow.
The new awareness also heightened my other senses. Since I was looking with new eyes, I became an observer, watching people socialize and watching my own interactions with others. I became aware of subtleties in gestures, glances, body language. I am better able to cue into people’s moods and I believe I have become a more empathic photographer. I am a better person for it.
If photography has taught me anything, it is that you don’t get very far unless you get out of your comfort zone. You can make authentic images only when you connect with your subjects which, for an introvert like me, is daunting. I have learned to break ice with strangers, strike up conversations, and make their images. While it never gets easy, making photographs has pushed me to get over my fears, to get out of my comfort zone.
When you come across the work of master photographers you are quickly left feeling depressed and inadequate. Their level of artistry leaves you wondering if your own work will ever hit the mark on anything significant. Eventually, however, you recover, you buckle up, and you resolve to learn from them. Studying the work of the masters has been one of the great joys for me. It has also started me on an endless journey of learning.
These are but a few of the whys of my love of making photographs and I am sure in the future my answer will include many more. But as long as the easy answer holds, the details do not matter, I guess! For now though, I just want to go make more photographs.