September 27, 2015



Photographs are an invitation to memory.  Something physical that sparks in us a remembrance of a special event or a loved one.

The mystery in the capturing of time and then an immediate representation for our human nature to remember.  We know death waits for us all so memory brings us back through the illusion of time to moments that we have forgotten and want desperately to bring back.

A frozen moment whether good or bad will stop us in thoughtful nostalgia.

But photographs are a false memory, a replacement for the real experience.

A photograph is mute, it can't touch your skin, react to your tears of separation, laugh with you, it can't tell you the moments leading up to the picture your viewing, no voice is heard.

The only remnants of the photograph is your memory of the scene when the picture was taken.  If you were not present then the image is a silent witness to a lost time.  A never gained experience, only a secondary replica of a moment in the time line of the person or subject now forever trapped in a two dimensional plane.

Your personal memory is the precious connection of your moments in your life.  To have pics of your moments in time is a false life, lived through an abstraction from real moments.  These captured moments are yanked from your living time line and displayed to others as your life.

Your objectifying your life, not living your unique time line in the present, in the now.  Using for your memory of events, an artifact, a paper clue to your experiences not the experience itself.

You must experience your life first hand not through a mechanical device that doesn't know who you are, what your likes and dislikes are.

Constant picture taking is a distraction from living your life.  It has become and addiction, it is a separation from not a participation in your reality.  This obsession with picture taking is a habit of insecurity.  By putting a device between you and your experience you are allowing a misdirection from the present moment, diminishing the scene, the interaction with the environment and losing an awareness of the actual moment being experienced.

To create images with purpose enhances your awareness of your experiences not diminishing them.  To immerse yourself in the environment, to study the scene with full attention is what good photography is all about.

What we see on social media is someone else's life not your true existence.  Your images posted are as real as shadows on the cave wall in the knowing of your life.  Social media makes cavemen and cavewomen of us all.

These images are propaganda, false beliefs of what are life really looks like.  You can't live a useful life through posting and boasting through snap shots of your personal life.

The livelihood of living a life is purpose, willful saturation of yourself in the experience. If you don't take time to see visually what is in front of you your mind begins to ignore the details that make up a well conceived image but more importantly a well conceived personal identity.

The images on social media are free content, shallow tidbits of candy for the untrained eyes.  Supplying snap shots of your life for an audience of strangers is narcissistic.  This society we are creating shows an increase in the lack of private space to create a true meaningful life of your own will. Social media is first and foremost entertainment, allowing us to show off our passing shallow moments of life without concrete relationships being forged in private one on one verbal interaction.

Photography is an art form not a obsession with yourself as an ego object to show off every moment of a repetitious life.

Good images are created with intense immersion in the scene, whether it is a portrait, landscape or an editorial shoot.

The truth in an image is linked to the connection between image creator and subject.

The difference between a great photograph and a snap shot is that in a snap shoot the subject is ego based. Where images created are interaction between the subject and the photographer through intense focus and empathy.

In making good images you are not thinking of yourself while creating the photograph.  But focused on the scene in front of you. You are willing to meditate on your environment and wait for the right moment.  Rather than snapping away randomly with you in the frame or a body part in the picture.

A good photograph looks out with intensity creating a relationship with the person viewing the photograph.  Where a social media snapshot is not about the subject but the poses of ego parading around specifically to expose themselves to hungry eyes.

Purpose enhances sight.  Focus your intent on your subject and heighten your awareness of the potential not yet visible.