August 14, 2014

The mechanical nature of photography hinders our ability to dig deeper into our own outer reflections.  We assume that photography is the easy of all art mediums and therefore no thought process is necessary to create a meaningful picture.  All pictures taken become meaningful no matter how banal.  This over abundance of blasé imagery that exploits our daily lives is a nuisance that is distracting us from our life goals.  The camera has become a barrier to seeing and living a fulfilling life.  

For me photography is a means of expressing my private self.  The camera gave me a window, an ability to focus on external details that could be brought together through composition, light, perspective in such away that allowed me to express my inner world.

Nowadays people, when taking pictures, think that the camera takes the pictures.  And they are right.  New cameras can take thinking out of making photographs.  It is the old Instamatic ads stating, all you have to do is point and shoot and you will be guaranteed a perfect picture.  But in today's run and gun and post on social media sites nobody seems to care about the camera as an instrument to create art. And in creating a personal vision for the viewer you are interacting with through your image creation.

This picture taking reality we now inhabit is not interaction nor is it communication with others but a shadow life exposed for the the thrill of the upload. And surely for the comments that follow.  This slowly becomes an intermediary world of quasi word play without the responsibility of discourse and the ability to articulate your true self through expressing your inner feelings.  

We see ourselves through others eyes as spectacles for the masses, entertainment with no depth but a cursory glance on a screen that fits into someones palm while ignoring the world that is present in front of them.

Revealing an image with purpose and depth has been replaced by a snap shot, showing off oneself as if you are the stars in your our own Hollywood stills.

Nature has lost it’s appeal, its luster for our intense interest.  Now we want to objectify ourselves to the world by our ego driven need to be seen, we are the true subject of the snapshot.  We live our lives looking at photographs as if these blah images are the new reality.  Sitting at a screen and looking into the mesmerizing images of other humans doing nothing is what entertains us into today's superficial interaction.

We have taken the place of nature and we have become the essence of the photo. Nature now is just a backdrop to our own self promotions.

By putting ourselves and our close environment into pictures that say nothing about ourselves we are acknowledging the loss of individuality and have joined the collective.  We add our fragments to an image industry already burdened by the destruction of photography as an art form.

We expose an outer shell to the world to laugh at or cry with but with no real personal interaction with the screen, except a like or dislike.

Burk Uzzle, "Too many tools can be divisive, obscuring primary relationships between photographer and subject. Dogma is the desperation of shallowness, while discipline, if used instead of worshipped, is liberating".