Tag:

Photography Ethics

27 Reasons Why People Photograph

Photography. The ability to capture and freeze a moment. In today’s age people are photographing all the time thanks to the device that does not leave their hand. But why? Why do people feel the need to photograph? What compels them to keep photographing? Is it only because their cat is cute or is it something else? Why Photograph?

For myself I have felt that photography is natural. It is a way of living. A way of experiencing the world. It is not about what comes after the image- for me. The sharing and showing is something I have struggled with. So it was not about the fame or popularity or even the attention a great photograph can bring. It is something more. To me, being a photographer is someone who is in love with the world. Or as I say to my friends, “It is because I love to find the good stuff.” It is a way of practicing joy.

This very conversation was one I had in a college class with my professor who change everything about how I look at photography and therefore the world. That is where the featured image stems from- a conversation and his notes on the board.

27 Reasons that People Photograph:

Memories
Documentation
Money
A way of Engaging with the World
A way of Practicing Joy
To Find the Good Stuff
Challenging Concepts
Propaganda
Obsessive
Fun
Addiction
A Drive to Create
A Drive to Capture Beauty
Photography as a way of knowing
Libidinal
Intellectual
Camera Junkies
Gear Heads
Popularity
Advertising
Manipulating
A Compulsion
Not able to let go
Impressions
To Tell a Story
To Make
To Make Art

Let me say that again. To make. To make art. Humans are engineered to make. The visual is not foreign. It is how we first communicated and will be how we communicate forever into the future. The visual is essential to connection and can be essential to disconnection.

This is why visual arts education and media literacy is so important for our current students. It is the world we operate in and it is not going away.

To continue your search for why- read the interviews of 5 inspiring and expert photographers I recently did. To see what I find beautiful- see this.

Where do you all fit? Why do you photograph?

Inspiration

5 Inspiring Photographers Discuss their Work and Best Advice

This expert round up features photographers of all kinds who inspire me on the daily with their Instagram feeds. Diverse styles and different technology, these photographers answered 5 questions including giving their best advice, editing choices, and even braving the question of a photographers current place in society.

If you are looking for inspiration in your own work or just to freshen up your feed I hope these photographers resonate with you as much as they have with me.

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Inspiration

Beauty in Art & What I Find Beautiful

Beauty in art- an over used term that we still have to talk about.

Some say this is the entire point of art. This is why we photograph. Others say it is an archaic notion that cannot be applied to the 21st century when art seems to have spilled out of its defined borders into the surrounding areas called the web, the streets and even the odd spaces like lockers.

Inspiration Tech & Tips Tips

TedxTalk on Abstract Photography: Blurred Impact

Photographic images are containers for information. They tell a story. Or at least they should right? We are conditioned to expect images to talk about something so when they offer very little and are in fact abstract what does this mean? Abstract photography evolved out of frustration, but turned out to be one of the best things I ever investigated.

This talk investigates my path to the abstract photograph and the ideas behind that slur of information. On here and on Instagram I rarely share this portion of my work. I save this for my fine art that resides on my artists website. However, I am still making this work and felt it could be appropriate to share my Ted Talk here as well.

If you struggle to understand the abstract or are drawn to creating the abstract this talk gives insight into both as well as my journey with photography.

As always, I welcome your ideas and commentary on abstraction and the photograph.

Inspiration

5 Books that Changed my Perspective on Photography

Look at Good Work and Read About Good Work

As some of you may know I am a photography and design teacher by day. I had a professor in college that said, “If you are not looking at good work, you are not making good work.” Photography books are a plenty, but there are a few that have truly impacted me and are worth your time.

To this day, I try to embody this mentality within my own practice and that of my students. We start every class with our Artist of the Day looking at photographers from the very start of the invention that captured light.

I often come across individuals who are so consumed with being their “own” person and not looking at other artist’s work. Or God Forbid the Instagram game of follow and unfollow without considering the album of work. (Someone explain to me why people play the follow unfollow game! Ugh!)

I digress, the point being as an artist, creator or photographer I strongly believe you should be looking to improve your practice. The best way to do this is to look at others work and hear what they have to say about it.

5 Must Reads

As a photographer, there have been a few books that have changed the most powerful tool I possess; my perspective.

Inspiration

Taken or Made: An Evaluation of Re-photography in the Technological Age

“You don’t take a photograph, you ask, quietly, to borrow it.” -Author Unknown

You are exposed to thousands of images everyday. They scroll in front of our eyes on Facebook, Pinterest, billboards and more. There mode of existence is your computer, phone, car: essentially technology. This new age of technology comes with an over-saturation of images and easy access. In this blog I too contribute to plethora of images being produced. It is this trend that has offered support for a sub category of images marked rephotography.

Rephotographing historical sites or even other artist’s work has been a highlighted theme in the contemporary art world. A peaked interest has been found more recently in the heavy saturation of online images.

Photography Ethics

27 Reasons that People Photograph:

Memories

Documentation

Money

A way of Engaging with the World

A way of Practicing Joy

To Find the Good Stuff

Challenging Concepts

Propaganda

Obsessive

Fun

Addiction

A Drive to Create

A Drive to Capture Beauty

Photography as a way of knowing

Libidinal