#3 On Photography
On Photography
To remix the iconic There Will be Blood line, "I'm a photographer... I like to think of myself as a photographer". There was rarely a moment in my childhood, when someone wasn't telling me to smile and flashing my eyes with a camera while I awkwardly posed with someone. I never understood those folks. I understood my uncle who would groan and mumble to himself during every mini photoshoot we had. Pictures were a dreaded ceremony where I felt forced to fake a smile and act happy and for many years I dreaded the rigamarole every time. I continued with it because I saw how happy it made the adults and grandparents around me ecstatic, but still couldn't understand the benefit of taking these pictures. As a kid I rarely saw the photos, but some of the first photos I remember looking at and regarding as valuable were pictures of myself as a baby, and pictures of my brother, cousin and I from about 10 years ago. The latter I still remember to this day which.
My brother and I were extremely insistent on not smiling and being as unenthusiastic as possible to be wearing dreaded polo shirts and jorts for a photoshoot we didn't sign up for. Meanwhile my cousin who was likely ready to get the pictures over with instead of stalling, decided to engage in the deadly art of tickling. The result was three huge smiles to forever be enshrined on coffee tables and above fireplaces.
My photography journey started my senior year in high school when I was inspired by a classmate who started a 365 day photo challenge. Simple rules, take a picture every day and post it on Twitter. I remixed what he did as a way to document 2017 for myself. Early on, I realized that I hardly went anywhere in my life besides school and home. I was going to have a challenging time finding anything interesting to take a picture of for the next year if I continued on like I was, so I decided to venture into the great outdoors. Looking through my thread I can confidently say a non-trivial majority of the photos I took here were not good. But, never before in my life can I remember being so content with going out and taking a walk or doing anything under the sun by myself. My 2017 was an era of self-fulfillment and contentedness that I will likely never experience again. Being in a suburb with little to offer in terms of scenery and events forced me to venture constantly to new areas in hopes of finding just one interesting thing to capture through my lens. Rarely did I find anything other than a flower or a sunset it seems, but now I can look back on nearly every picture I took and recall where I was and what generally was going on around that time. Despite being publicly posted on Twitter for likes and retweets, the challenge became a self-motivated experience that at many times felt like a conversation and competition with myself. (Full disclosure, there was many days in which I "laid a goose egg" -- to quote my brother -- and on top of that, by the time I moved to Atlanta for college there was not much photo taking going on.)
Its evident to me how much 2017 influenced my current disposition on photography. I rarely offer or even think to photograph myself, or others at events or while hanging out despite carrying my camera with me nearly everywhere. But catch me on a walk? Or traveling? I've already snapped 100 photos. When I feel alone or like no one's watching, I'm automatic on the pictures and I'm proud of that. It's helped me to capture some beautiful moments and to share my view of beauty with others.
Photography was the first creative outlet I've had and I didn't discover it until I was in my last year of high school. I've got a lot of room to grow and I believe everyone should seek to deepen their relationship with photography in some way that is meaningful to them. Photos as mementos and regular archival seem to me the most straightforward relationship to accept. Take pictures of yourself, friends, family, or the people you live with on some regular degular day. Nowadays, phones and services like Snapchat and Google Photos are smart enough to resurface pictures of you and these people on just the right day and you'll thank yourself in the future when you're prompted with the nostalgia of this picture you randomly decided to take. The next time someone takes a photo of you maybe treat it like a film photo, i.e. one take only, basically don't look at the picture until you want to share it or are ready to be comforted by the warm embrace of that memory. I theorize this will help folks stay in the moment of the occasion more and will reduce conflict between you and the person who has to take 50 photos of you smiling and posing in acutely different ways (this may sound like shade, but its not!)
Growing older and perusing more photo albums that are older than I am with parents and grandparents has taught me the most important reason to smile nicely in pictures, 30-40 years down the line some young person will be laughing and pointing at you in a picture saying "is that really you grandpa/uncle/dad?!"
Jokes aside, I hope that in the coming years I become more automatic with picture taking when with friends and family and that you, whoever you may be, take a silly picture with someone you care about this week.
-- Kevin B. signing off.