Are photographs the main reason you photograph?

[2F/2F]

Is the creation of photographs the main reason you photograph? Do you even love to look at photographs? Or is it simply the joy of the act of photography? Is it something that it makes you feel, or a way it makes you act? Does it bring you out of your shell? Has it changed you as a person and your philosophies and experiences in life?

Personally, I am not a huge fan of photographs themselves. I like them, even love some of them, but I am not an aficionado. I don't have lots of photo books. I don't know lots of photographers. I don't go to lots of galleries. I enjoy what photography has done for me as a person, and the way it has changed my personality and my way of looking at the world and dealing with people. I enjoy the mental stimulation and the "creative" outlet. My problem is that the shooting itself largely satisfies me, and I have far too little desire or motivation to actually print and present. It doesn't give me a feeling anywhere near as good as being out shooting, thinking up ideas, or looking at my film on a light box. It does not make me feel incomplete when I don't print something that I like. Is it wrong to do it just for myself? Honestly, some people think that it is. They get VERY upset at my level of interest in photographs or at my slow pace at providing a product for all to see. Do I need to team up with someone who is more into the actual photos?

What do you like best? What keeps you going? Is it photographs, or is it photography?

[Steve Smith]

I think my thoughts are similar to yours. I spend a lot more time taking pictures, collecting and even making cameras than I do printing. When a printing session goes well I enjoy it. When it is not going well I hate it and wish someone else would do it for me.

I suppose then that I do like the prints as well but my feelings for the process of making the prints varies. Can't beat being outside on a long walk with a camera though.

I have had similar thoughts about something else I do. Music. I play guitar semi-professionally. All of my friends in a similar situation have huge record collections whereas mine is pitifully small. I love music (especially live) but don't really seem motivated to go out and buy recorded music.


Steve.

[Graham.b]

Good Morning 2F/2F. I as you do not visit galleries, nor do i have a interest in them. All those people saying what they see when really you can not make head nor tail of it. I do have a couple of books though. 2 by Roger Hicks, and 1 by Barry Thornton, "the edge of darkness" i think it is more of the finish in his prints that grab me, not to mimic or even try but there is that some thing.

I first started at around 13-14, 1975-76, i was looking at some photo's of Swindon a town that i lived in and still do. There were some picture's going back to the early day's of steam (i do like steam trains, traction engine's and so), which got me thinking of all those prints, a lot of those places do no exist any more, well the area but not the shop, bridge, a road. That lead me to thinking how much more of our history is going and not being remembered.

your point on printing, this is my biggest kick, what if i did this, or that, i can't count the mount of paper i have gone through but my wife Anne, say's, you are just not happy, satisfied, it has to be better than the last one, she say's the same when we are on a day out, it has to be just right, the light the amount of people in it. In all that i do like to look at others work, but it has to be the look of time in it own time, a past object of history, a photo that looks into a tunnel, where has it came from to where are you going. I suppose that leads i a circle, where has our history gone and where is it going. Or more to the point where are we going.

Regards Graham

[kavandje]

I try to keep it simple: I am indeed after the photographs.

The GAS / "own a zillion cameras" thing is like an 18th century duellist's eternal, fruitless quest for the Perfect Lunge, the Quintessential Unstoppable Attack.

[perkeleellinen]

I think I'm after the photographs but enjoy the journey getting there.

Like kavandje, I have an animosity with GAS - if I get something new, I have to sell at least one thing. In an ideal world, I'd make great pictures with one camera and lens - maybe I'll get there one day.

[eddym]

I'm in it for the prints.

[nyoung]

A very good questions indeed.

For me, its both.

The photographs are part of all my stories and inseparable from them. I make them because I see something I want to keep.

They are also my art. Many of my photographs are made with the intention of display, others are made purely as an exercise in craft. Like the duelist, I spend considerable time in practice in a quest for a "perfect" execution of an idea. Just like my afternoon visits to the skeet range in the quest for a perfect round.

I go to galleries and shows when I'm near them and I have quite a few books. But, I don't collect photography and it has been years - now that I think about it - since I added a book to the shelf.

[Kevin Caulfield]

Good question. I do it for every step. Photography satisfies me for the taking and the making and the looking, and luckily for me, I enjoy each part.

[chriscrawfordphoto]

I'm a professional artist. The photographs are the only reason I work. I love going to museums and galleries, collecting books of photos, and reading art history and criticism.

[Shangheye]

To each his own meditation...because that is what it is for me. The viewfinder disconnects me from the noise, and I become isolated within my own mind. It is only recently that I have rediscovered that same feeling in the darkroom. I don't think I would do without either right now, each brings its own feelings.

If taking the pictures is where you find your Zen, then let no one tell you different.

K