Hi
I read in "Bystander - the history of street photography", that someone once said photography should be as important as writing, and should be a part of everybody's education.
For me, it is many things.
It inspires as much as it fulfills, the need for an avenue of artistic and creative expression. The act of seeing things in a different light and visual arrangement of objects helps sharpen and heighten my visual senses. Just as my passion for writing has helped me to arrange my thoughts in a coherent manner, photography has helped me to see patterns, ordered entities and structure in otherwise incoherent chaos. I begin to put things visually in my mind, to find intepretation in things I see, and even to create and stir emotions in other people by the way I create and layer a picture. I think writing and photography complement each other very well.
Sometimes the pictures turn out to be duds. Some are visually appealing, but do nothing to inspire people. Some failed to convey how I feel to others. But when you get one that has everything in place - structure, intepretation and emotions, it's a rush. It's a sense of accomplishment. It's a moment of a self congratulatory pat on one's back, before moving on to find that next great picture. It's the knowledge of that next great picture, the one that I can capture, that pushes me on.
(As an aside, when I was in primary school, my form teacher commented that I can write pages and pages of gramatically correct English, but turn out work that is without structure and order, and without a sense of purpose. And who says lady teachers are all kind and nice pple? ;p I can see a bit of that in the way I photograph sometimes - her words never sounded so real until now. Something for me to work on!)
Photography also helps me, no, forces me to participate more in life. When I photograph a wedding, a social event, or just taking pictures for my own satisfaction, I always inevitably get sucked into the situation. You can't take pictures without emotion - you will end up with boring uninspired shots and you will wonder why you ever took those pictures. I find that when I participate, when I start to feel, that's when the ideas and creative juices start to flow. Thank God for my stint as my church's photographer - it really helps me see AND feel. I remembered being touched to the point of almost tearing at a recent wedding I photographed. The bride was telling the story of her love with her husband. Sometimes in the hustle of life, you forgot that true love still exists.
I also love photography as a means of documenting life. (Again, something I learnt and fell in love with while helping out in church) What inspires me is the ability to document not just the plain facts, but also the raw emotions, feelings and atmosphere of the story. What strikes me even more, is the fact that I am able to dictate those moods and feelings by how I take those pictures. How I portray the event has an important bearing on how others intepret the story when looking at those pictures. Depending on what I'm taking, it can be an enormous responsibility, as well as a personal challenge.
All of the above points bring me to my conviction (attained after a long time) that photography is more than just about the picture I create. The process of photography is just as important, if not more so.
That process helps shapes my views and inspires my thoughts.
So maybe there's some truth to that statement after all - that photography should be part of everyone's education.
