My Hypocriticism of Photography

It's a word.
And don't look it up. This relationship will only work if you trust me...

Okay.
Picture this *pun intended*: You are in a moment, and everything about that moment is brilliant. You absorb from that moment the sights, the smells, the emotions, the interactions, everything. And you love that moment. You want to capture it somehow. So that you will remember. So that you can share it with others. Then you take out your camera, and you snap a picture.

Later, you are telling people about your weekend, or the trip you went on, or the time you spent abroad, or whatever caused that moment. And as you try desperately to capture the experience in words, you realize you've captured that moment on camera. A picture is worth 1000 words, right? So you show them. But when you look at the pictures: there's nothing there.

It's just an image. An image of people, and buildings. An image of you, and the mountains in the background. An image of your friends eating at a restaurant. Just an image. But where did the smells go? The emotions? The interactions? Where is everything else? Where is your moment?

I'll tell you where your moment is: it's gone. You've experienced something, but nothing can capture it. You can get pictures of it; you can talk about it. But in the end, that moment was a moment made only for you, and you have to savor it while it encases you, because it's never coming back.

Photography is a futile and desperate attempt. It doesn't work. But that doesn't stop me from trying. And sometimes, I forget to actually live in moments becuase I am too busy trying to capture them.

I also do (or try to do) artistic photography. You know, not just the taking-pictures-of-random-things-when-something-fun-is-happening. The photography where you find things or people or places, and you stage them. You adjust them, and you manipulate them...and then you change the settings on your camera: the amount of light being let in, the shutter speed, the focus: all of this to capture the essence of something. And I give the same criticisms to this type of photography.

The thing is: I love photography. Whether it's the taking-pictures-of-random-things-when-something-fun-is-happening photography, or the manipulative-artistic photography...I love it. Maybe it doesn't capture a moment accurately, and maybe it doesn't exactly capture the essence of a place, person or thing. But it does conjure up something new: a new moment, if you will. And it's important. Our recollection of history would be entirely different without it. Just keep in mind: those pictures you see of history or of a friend's experience, and the emotions they may provoke...you aren't getting the full experience.
There's no frame around a moment.

That's my hypocriticism.
Happy shooting.