I'll bite the bullet. I really hope this gets a lot of responses, because in its simplicity, it is a really good question. (I think it'd be cool if we get some back and forth between people on this and it's not just a "post yours" thread)
I never could draw well. I am a pretty creative person in most other aspects, but anything to do with recreating images (even 3D) is just impossible. I'm shite as music too. So I decided to go to the one type of visual art that relies only on my vision, and not my ability to physically recreate it.
To deal with emotional stress in my life.
I've had some really traumatic events in the past and especially recently. Whenever I get really shaken up about it I go out and try and take pictures. Sometimes to capture what I'm feeling and try to express it in a why words can't and sometimes to try and just take my mind off it altogether. I'm not a happy person, I haven't been for a long time, but things are a little less bleak when people are happy about what you can create.
i'm not very artistic. i'm also not very frivolous. i'm a humanist, and a bit of an environmentalist. i love people and i love our planet! the result is that i believe in the power of humankind, some of what we have created, and where we live to help fulfill us.
it's better explained by this quote from objectified:
[quote=rob walker]“If I had a billion dollars to fund a marketing campaign I would launch a campaign on behalf of things you already own, why not enjoy them today? because we all have so many things that are just around, they’re in the closet, they’re in the attic, whatever. And we don’t even think about them any more because there’s not enough room left in our brains because we’re so busy processing all the exciting new developments."[/quote]
i photograph because i feel that its a well suited medium to express the brilliance and beauty of everyday things and people. that is, things that already exist.
perhaps the most important thing i can say about this is that my belief is extremely personal. i don't expect anyone else to agree with me, and i certainly don't expect anyone to lay down their cameras or paint brushes. photography should be about whatever the person behind the camera wants it to be, just like everything. this is just part of who i am.
i always wanted to be good at drawing as a kid. when i was recently buying my macbook pro (last october), i decided to go for a model down and thought i could maybe get a DSLR with that spare money and so i discovered photography. it's great, and have pretty much entirely abandoned drawing for it :z
i love trying to capture a moment effectively in a still image. it's fun trying to practice that and meeting cool people along the way
Autobiographical reasons. Photos allow me to construct a narrative for others to see, and I like to make it an aesthetically pleasing narrative.
I've always wanted to be some kind of artist when I was a kid and early in my teenage years. I wasn't really good at drawing and all that stuff and that dream sorta kinda died as i went along with high school. I've always had a peculiar interest in very aesthetically pleasing images and I've dabbled with that with my phone camera. But it wasn't until I got my Alpha 58 that I seriously got into photography, which was just this February actually. I bought it for food photography when I thought I wanted to be a cook. But I haven't actually photographed any food at all with it! Instead I just wanted to capture interesting looking images and a form of self-expression. And only after a few weeks with it, I knew that photography was that art form that I've been looking for all my life. It's the tool that I've always needed to make what's in my mind's eye a reality and reveal other sights around my life too. And I guess I'm kind of good at it, or so people have told me. But I believe that I am decent in it and that's the difference with my previous attempts at normal drawing and stuff. I never believed I was good. But photography. I like it. Imma keep doing it for the rest of my life probably.
I get paid
Asking "why do I photograph?" is like asking "why does the sun shine?" There's the long complicated answer, or the really short answer, "just because." For that matter, why do I need a reason at all? If I needed a reason, I guess it would have to be because I am a lonely bastard who wants to feel like he's doing something productive and artistic.
I used to go to all sorts of provincial parks with family and friends when i was young, So i got accustomed to staring outside the car window and just watching the surroundings roll by. Later on in life when i was looking into taking up a hobby that was more creative i realized just how inspiring and important those early experiences were for me. It led me to think of other times i saw beauty in things id otherwise look over, thus leading me up to photography and this subforum.
I could go on about this but ill keep it simple.
I love documenting things I do with my life. Whether it's something like just going out with some friends for drinks or heading interstate for a convention or a holiday, I try and take pictures of stuff to try and document it. Going to make it really handy for getting a partnership visa for my girlfriend as well.
Cameras absolutely fascinate me for some reason, don't know why but they just do.
I may not be the best photographer, but I'm working on getting better and certainly have over time. It's also something that gets me out of the house which I have been needing to do for a while.
[QUOTE=Kabstrac;45039210]I photograph because I live for that flooding sensation of accomplishment when I capture a photograph that pushes my personal boundaries. I strive for a potent response to my works; both responses from within, and responses from without. Capturing things in new ways, and bringing beauty to the typical is so thrilling to me, and I'm positive it is to others. Applying concepts of art and finding my own style, learning about the technicalities and what-not.
It's just a damn satisfying hobby that I wish to make a career out of.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Trogdon;45039236]Autobiographical reasons. Photos allow me to construct a narrative for others to see, and I like to make it an aesthetically pleasing narrative.[/QUOTE]
these 2 sum it up for me
i used to just enjoy using a camera and photographing shit, and my mum gave me really harsh and on point cc (she worked in retail management, fuck knows why she didn't do image related stuff). i decided to take it a bit more seriously and i'm hoping to pursue a career in cinematography. taking photos lets me develop my understanding of tone, colour, light and technical stuff that will help my cinematography become an even richer display of what the director is after.
i also do it because in a decade all i'm gonna have is some memories and my photos from this time and i'd like the photos to be really fucking good ones.
because it's fun editing them in lightroom
and i like depth of field in general, so zoom lenses are cool
Because I find it fun
It's a distraction.
I like to create stories
purchasing so much film, lenses, and bodies i don't really need keeps me from spending my money on crack
"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film".
- Robert Adams
It's a good way of expressing emotions, and it helps me with my agoraphobia
it the only thing i like that i can realistically turn into a job
im following the "find something you love and do it for the rest of your life" policy.
I tried to do lot's of different ventures during school like acting/performing arts, music, drawing/painting, graphic design, sport etc and while I was alright at most, especially acting and music, I never really enjoyed them. Took photography A Level because I had always been interested in visual arts and I really did just get hooked on it. I had always wanted a thing I was known for enjoying/being good at but never really found it and then when I started taking photographs I felt like I had found it. I think I got into it so easily because of how passive I can be with it as opposed to learning piano or guitar which takes so much dedication to get the muscle memory.
aka I'm lazy
i do it for the chicks
it's a hobby that i enjoy dedicating some time to even though sometimes my stuff can be shit
it allows me to be alone or more personal with someone else
It's quite relaxing.
just looking over some of my older stuff i have on flickr, i can recall exactly what i was feeling when i took most of the photos (and for a lot of them i can also recall what music i was generally listening to around that time), so i suppose that's at least partly why
i also like having good photos of people i like
I like looking back at my work and such.
and.. .I'm bloody useless at art.
Parents for the longest time shunned me for being hobby-less and being a lump that sits in-front of a computer all day. I saw how bad photography was taught in my school, so I began watching DigitalRevTV and other YouTube channels on photography. I got gravitated by how photos can convey so much. I saved up for a 550D and began shooting things... and eventually picked up a 50 f/1.8. Friends at the time were into anime and comic booky things, and I became a photographer for them for a bit. Now I normally do street photography and no longer being a lump who sits in-front a computer all day and maintaining a healthy relationship with parents and gf.
to take funny pictures of my dad sleeping on the floor drunk and show people it later
[editline]8th July 2014[/editline]
also if I did, it would very much be for wallpapers of really awesome scenery
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
