Dear friend,
Why do you make photos?
I’ll start:
I make photos to help people appreciate their loved ones. I make photos to remind us that we will die one day, and we should appreciate, love, and never take our loved ones for granted:
Also, share your 1 favorite photograph with why you shoot photography.
I make photos to communicate. When words fail, sometimes a simple photograph can convey my emotions and thoughts.
I take photos to capture a moment that will be gone in an instant, a moment I may not have noticed if it was frozen. I take photos to share my experiences of daily life around me or traveling and sharing that no matter our cultures, backgrounds or where we live we’re all humans who love, feel and breathe the same.
I take photos to capture a moment that will be gone in an instant, a moment I may not have noticed if it was frozen. I take photos to share my experiences of daily life around me or traveling and sharing that no matter our cultures, backgrounds or where we live we’re all humans who love, feel and breathe the same.
Beautiful moment hoho; love the yellow tones on the left of the frame, the lack of eye contact, and the fleeting moment of uncertainty in both their eyes.
I recently just came back from Tijuana yesterday. Up until before I left I kept getting, “why are you going there” or “it’s really dangerous you’re going to get your head cut off” etc. basically negative and preconceived thoughts without them ever experiencing it first hand. It was similar when I went to India.
There couldn’t be anything further from the truth. Everyone in Tijuana was super friendly, warm, extremely hard working and very helpful. They’re just like you and I or anyone in the US, just trying to survive and feed their families. The picture above was taken in a coffee shop in Tijuana.
I shoot photos as a coping mechanism to deal with my anxiety and stress caused by daily routines; and as a visual exercise, which really helped me on raising my awareness to my surroundings (i.e: what’s happening around me). After I started shooting street photography, I realized that I noticed many things that I haven’t seen before. It feels like a brand new eye has opened.
Maybe because i find it hard for me to relate to other people before. Um, it’s quite hard to explain, but have you ever walked on a street and saw people passing by and that’s it? It feels like a meaningless scenery, and robotic. But with my eye opened, it really expands my horizon. I can see not only technical compositions, lightings, and things like that; but also the humane feeling in the fleeting glimpse. I noticed expressions, emotions, and everything that makes humans human.
I feel you Keneth. I often ‘see’ the world but I’m not really seeing. There is something about photography that encourages you to see deeper and pause on little things like gestures, colors, and expressions.
I make photos, because it really stimulates my creativity which I enjoy a lot and it also forces me to keep learning and developing myself with regard to the world and human beings around me.
Hello Eric & All,
I moved 6 years ago to a remote, rugged and fully off the grid Island to live (Great Barrier Island, New Zealand). I used to be an academic working at a University, but that didn’t make me content.
Anyway, I make photos to document the beauty of this Island, Island Life and to satisfy myself. I take great joy and pride from the fact that I am in total charge of the entire process of my photography. Photography has also re-ignited my desire to learn, something that went astray during my academic work.
Best wishes to you and Cindy, it was one of your youtube videos on composition that got me following your blog and work. You write about empowering others, which you are. So thanks.
Cheers, Ben
Why do I make photos?
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I capture images because it’s a form of meditation, when I take photos it puts me into a Zen state. I wish to one day teach photography, to help people find their own unique voice and style in photography.
I feel a strong connection to why you yourself make photos Eric. I started taking photos after my mother died. It was a way for me to process my emotions after the fact, to make sense of it all. To find who I was meant to be. The grief has not truely left me, in many ways I felt guilty I didn’t start taking photos before she died, because I don’t have any photos I took of her that I can proud of. Art has always been a cathartic process like this for me, prior to gravitating to photography I was making music. The process is much the same except with photos I can work on my own. I take photos because it makes me want to live and to survive.
The photo depicts my father asleep on his bed with some of his paintings. To the left there is a portrait of my late mother and the empty side of the bed where my mother would have used to sleep. I took this a few years ago but it’s still my most powerful image, I try not to share it too much though.
Emil, Thank you for sharing both, your emotions and the photo. What you wrote moved me to tears. Like you, I have lost my mother recently, who was artistic in her own right, but even more recently my father. Photography was one thing we shared a passion for and that is why I make photos now. To still have that connection to him. As I develop my skill and technique I always think of them and feel them with me.
Hello All
I am from Melbourne, Australia. I make images to create my own imaginary universe. Maybe it is a coping mechanism, or maybe it is an outlet for my imagination. Not sure really.
I feel you man. Like I said above, photography is a coping mechanism for me as well.
I feel you man. Like I said above, photography is a coping mechanism for me as well.
True 🙂
Hey man, I also shoot street in Melbourne. I think for many of us photography is a coping mechanism and will be able to identify with that.
That’s awesome man…I think I have met you once though not sure….will love to catch-up in person sometime
Hey guys I also shoot street in Melbourne! I better check my photos to see if I managed to capture you on camera during one of my walks around town😉. More seriously, photography for me is a way of capturing life’s fleeting moments or those details overlooked in the bustle of our busy lives. This became more poignant for me after my daughter died, 5 years ago. It showed me that life is fleeting and we should take nothing for granted. I am glad to have the photos I took journaling her life and they help keep memories alive.
Photography is an outlet for my creativity and way to interact with the world. It also helps me deal with stress and the pressures of my life.
Really nice colours with the first one. Prefer it to black and white.
For me, photography is a creative outlet and a way to interact with the world. It’s also a way to relieve stress and the pressures of life
For me, photography is a creative outlet and a way to interact with the world. It’s also a way to relieve stress and the pressures of life
I really like your thoughts on this and I feel the same.
I take photos because i am trying to get more out of life, every photo i take i analize later in my computer and see things i did not see when i was there taking the photo so the next time i am there i will be more aware of how life is evolving, you could say every photo is helping me be more aware of life. A certain anxiety starts to settle in your mind when you get to be 63 years old because time is running out and you desperately try to get more life out of time, and photographs help me do that.
