What moves me to photograph?

What moves me to photograph?

Motives are often mixed and I find mine are too, with photography. Whenever you speak to someone and say, “I’m a photographer” the first thing that often comes out in the conversation is how difficult it is to make it as a photographer at pro. level. Later you start getting down to what it is that you like about photography and why it is so appealing. Since the beginning of my interest in photography I’ve always been aware of the slight frustration of both being intrigued by it and what it can achieve as visual medium and the way in which photography can often seem so distant and observed outside of oneself leaving feelings of alienation. The best photos that I have witnessed are those that have crossed that emotional divide and allowed me access to more than just a pretty landscape or a funny moment on the street.

The work of Sebastian Salgado for example is mesmerising in terms of subject matter and the way that it is portrayed in terms of those deep black and white tones, richly illumined and beautifully finished. The light quality in the photos often leaves me with a sense of otherworldliness. Winogrand tells us photos should be just that, the ordinary transformed into otherworldliness, showing the way to another dimension. Himself a street photographer, he and others like him (Bruce Davidson for example) claim to be showing the ‘human condition’. It seems that all of the great photographers aim to show in some way or other, aspects of the human condition. But it makes me think, what of the human purpose? Why is it that photos are so apt at showing us the ‘human condition’ but they sometimes lack the ability to show the reasons that we live and are on this planet? Maybe its better to leave the image open to interpretation and let people have their experience of it.

In this age of loss of morals and to some extent real values it can seem difficult to find images that offer a glimpse of light of hope of the human condition (often characterised by suffering and strife) transforming into an image of growth and development that is more internal and not so external. Very often photos are focused on the externals of a situation. By its nature photography is not easy to work with in terms of the metaphysical. In a sense it comes down to context and showing the photos a way that they can be interpreted or analysed. The human condition which is often documented as poverty, crime or people living under difficult circumstances, is now so common place, so predictable that one wonders wether these types of photos really have any deep impact on people or provoke any real change anymore.

I’m trying to be a photographer (seeing myself on a continuum of development).  I believe that there is a lot to learn and everyday I see myself grow more into the discipline. In terms of what my vision is or ‘what moves me to photograph’ it is this feeling that there is something valuable to say about human experience and that it is worth while sharing that with the world. In terms of human communication we are capable of all sorts of different ways of communicating: verbal, non-verbal, visual, gestures, symbols, archetypes, sound (music) and no doubt many other ways that we are not so conscious of. For me photography is about participating in this flow of communicating things that I believe are of worth. Things that hopefully bring a bit of meaning or reflection into the lives of the viewer. However, I think that this is difficult to do. I think that it is difficult because human communication itself can be difficult and that even with words, apparently one of the more obvious explicit form of communication that we have, can be so mis-interpreted. Therefore with seeing also there is the possibility to mis-interpret.

As time goes on I hope to find myself more apt at communicating skilfully with the lens and the camera, the values that for me have importance and have shaped my life and influenced it in positive ways. The act of photographing for me is often a contemplative affair. For me the act of photography is as much about looking and observing and thinking, as it is pressing the button to take the shot with the camera. In the moment of pressing the button its as if I am trying to consolidate all of those things into a moment of pure expression.