Why People Photograph

To communicate

One of the crucial elements in human being interactions is communication. It is a skill which is developed through time. To become naturally confident at it you have to go through the same process of repetitive learning you have already experienced in developing skills such as reading, walking or counting. We choose the way how we communicate with each other and there is no doubt that for a myriad of us it is way easier to express our feelings, emotions, opinions or attitude by the spoken word, but what about the rest of us? There are several ways how you can express yourself, I prefer photographs or visual arts in general which is not always self-explanatory, but it has its language that can be understood by most of us. Photographers aren’t the greatest speakers, but they are for sure the best storytellers. In order to be able to snap good pictures, you have to think before head considering whether your scenario in the frame can tell a story, spark emotion or at least bring subjective memory into individual viewers head.  

To bring back memories

From the moment the human body is born it begins dying. Sometimes it happens faster sometimes it happens slower. Our perception is being imposed and transformed through thoughts and memories in our brain. Sooner or later you realize that you are not capable to bring back all the memories just by trying to think of past events. In this case, photographs might be useful in fact with just one frame our brain is more likely to remember more memories since over 90% of the information we receive are from our visual understanding. The human brain loves photos, it can process visual information 60 000 times faster than written information. When you start to appreciate the time, you find distinct angles from where you might see photography on a completely different level. Everybody loves going through old photographs but you have to take some to savour that sweet moments years later.

To lie

Sometimes I miss the good-old candid photos especially those journalistic photos from TIME magazine where you as a viewer become part of the story additionally you start wondering about what happened in the scene. When photograph makes you start thinking beyond the frame that’s the point where you can be pretty sure you are looking at a great photograph. Time is moving fast; development of new technologies and last cultural trends are seeking attention from a huge mass of people and they change the way how we treat photography. Photo retouching has never been so accessible as it is today, the question remains where are the ethics? Many would ask, how far is too far? It gave us wider possibilities of how to work with one’s creativity but at the expense of removing the natural form in which we can find real beauty. Do you know that even film photographs were retouched in the 1930s? No? I thought so because retouching was used much less and in the right way so you haven’t spotted it at first sight, not even at the second sight. You cannot say the same about today’s work but you can pretty easily describe the egregious way of how is it harming people's self-esteem.