Why photograph, , , ?
I have asked myself and other colleagues this same question many times. The answers vary just as much as the subjects we focus our cameras or smart phones on. What has come back time and again
with consistency is the revelation and the surprise unknown animation of the photographic image.
Mountaineers scale mountain tops because it is there is widely known. The curious intoxication with
photography is that you never know where you will find your next image. The surprise can bring an
emotional reaction. I have known hard core street shooters to well up teary eyed for the joy of seeing.
Tina Modotti, the great photographer said it best, "you've got to feel it (the photograph) in the gut before you begin to focus" and within that split second you position yourself to take advantage of good fortune and lighting, to stop or walk a bit closer, etc., it is all only the beginning of a possible lengthy process.
Nothing is so clarifying as the final print that may have begun as defiant experience to see in a split second.
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