I hear many people complain about "photographers". The mass of them, with too much aspiration and not enough talent. Who ruin the industry and waste everyone's time with their photos, which are too pathetic for our standards.
This is all nonsense. Every photo is brilliant in some way..as are aspiring photographers. It isn't about the quality of your photo, it's why it was captured. Why did that person chose to preserve a particualr point in time and share it with the world?
I often find a moment in life so beautuful or happy, I don't want it to end. I try to soak it all in and repeat every detail over and over in my head, so when the glory days are over I can look back and remember that every day has a possibility for glory. The days don't change, only people change. The sun rises and sets as it did before in moments or times of great achivment. It is a lack of motaviton, happiness, understanding that blinds us from the oppourunity, not the passing of time.
(The goal of every artist should be to bridge this lack, for ourselves and for others who view our work.)
However, as much as I try, I can't not live in a moment that has passed. All I have are my memeroies, yet over time these begin to fade. These memories are with us in that we are developed from experiences, yet the joy of remembering them is lost.
A photo is a capture of life, a great happy moment, a sad moment, something beautiful and alive. Each photo is a memory, each picture is a bridge into someone's life. Photos are the only way to share experiences when we have forgotten the words. It is wrong to bash a photo, it is a piece of a person's soul.
The feelings and emotions behind the photo are hard to capture, and even harder to portray when a stranger views your picture. I guess a great photographer can express emotion, feeling through a photo and they are able to pass it's beauty onto others.
It's like writing. How do you describe pure happiness or love, how do you describe feeling invincible, how do you describe feeling numb or suicidal?
How do you describe nature and all it's beauty, or your mother's eyes, a sunset, the ocean?
I often feel as if my words slaughter the way things really are in life...perhaps photographers feel the same way.
The goal for all artists is to try as best they can to portray things as they are, weather it be beautiful or horrbile, to enocourge others or give them hope, for pure truth can never be shared, it first must be lived. It must be experiened by each person, so we can all relate to one another and compassion grows. Then our pictures and our words on paper make sense, they become alive, the reader knows what you are trying to show them because they have been there, and they love what you write for bringing them back.
Or perhaps you inspire them to go live it, to put down the book or photo and go see for yourself.
That at least is my goal.