why photography?
Last evening I was in a bar called "the Bunghole". Yeah, I thought the name was pretty funny too, haha!. Turned out the place was actually a very nice wine bar (bungholes having something to do with wine barrels). Very well dressed businessmen mostly populated it. Upon leaving, two of these three-piece business-suited men at the next table tried to get us to chat with them and started up a conversation:
"You're not CITY people, ARE you?" one of them leered. "Um, no" I said "we're photographers." I thought this was the best way to maybe get them to shut up. Of course it wasn't, and they proceeded to ask us many questions, of which I managed to get out of by saying I had another engagement and fleeing the pub. Their line of questioning was the usual sort of photography talk I cannot stand, which was why I left so quickly. "What kind of camera do you use?" was the first thing they asked. Gear talk bores me to tears, and I can only stand it if I happen to be in the market for a piece of equipment at the time. It's really disappointing that most people only want to talk about cameras. I joined a few photography communities on orkut, and sadly these have only gone into the same areas.
There is one community though, that encouraged non-technical talk about photography, but it stands nearly empty. So I posted this in response to a thread that began with these questions: Why do you carry a camera around? Why do you take pictures?
I like to be able to create art of out thin air. Taking a photo is freezing a moment in time and turning it into a two-dimensional image. It's not about capturing anything, its more about creating something different. A photograph is not real or true to life, it is only a very tiny piece of it. A picture is my own view of the world, or how I would like to see it, not how it is. A photograph is a way to edit out the world around me, and just take the bits I like. Taking photos is a way of being able to see the everyday art and beauty of the world. And then be able to put it in my pocket.
Posted by shannon at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)