September 5, 2015

Images are created for what purpose, objective truth? I don't think so. Imagery is created to enhance memory of the present moment as it moves always past our greedy grasp.  

Imagery created with the desire to seek the essence of the scene, creates a distinctive photograph that respects the purpose of photography.  Photography used to be about expressing an inner unique voice, to create a scene with meaning that could influence a viewers perception of the world.  

Photography is not truth but a representation of the truth, seen through the eyes of the person holding the camera.  We never break through the barrier between subjective and objective truth.  

Photography is always evolving and changing it's desires. In the past it would be used to document life, then interpret life, then level the idea of beauty in life and now photography is purely imitation.  We now see photographs as the real deal and not moments passing in our lives.  The question is, do we need to live individual lives separate from each other, I would answer yes to this question. Or live our lives with the herd posting pictures to social media sites (common entertainment for the masses) for all society to see, as if these pictures represented our life?  

Images created to be posted on social media have a shallow surface, a gleam of an ego exposing itself.

Imitation is suppose to be flattering but in the case of social media it has become all about the look and feel of being seen.  Your private lives are shown for all to see without a buffer of purpose and a statement of originality.

Not everything is worthy of being posted on social media.  If you can become more selective on your subject matter before posting and have an individual intent and a reason for posting, the current bombardment of banality could be reduced.  What people have misunderstood concerning social media is that it is not a family album to be broadcast to the world.  What social media is is media. Sellers need consumers to keep capitalism growing. Corporation are always looking for personal information to sell products to you through the information you broadcast on their sites.  

By exposing those private moments to anonymous voyeurs you are intentionally creating a separate universe, a collective mind of social media.  You are not living your life for you.  You are not making choices for your own journey through your time line but allowing an entity outside yourself to influence your life and it's demands keep growing for more and more private images and private desires to be posted.  Plain and simple it is an addiction. 

By posting private memories on these sites you are disconnecting yourself from those memories and 

putting them in an arena of commerce.

What better way to have the populace feel like they have a stake in this society than allowing them to believe that what they are doing right now, posting continually to these sites is important.  All social media is is a distraction from living a life through your reaction to external forces.  By personally interacting with nature, not taking pictures of yourself in nature, you are in a direct relationship with the external world.  You can react immediately and enjoy the experience first hand not through a device that puts a barrier between you and the world.   

Good photography is just that, immersing yourself in nature with your subject and not thinking about you as separate from the subject but connected internally and externally, as an inspiration felt and acknowledged through meaningful photographs.