digging for truth with photography

I wonder often who would read my thoughts on photography.. I try to remind myself it doesn’t really matter who would.

In the same vein, my daily practice involves avoiding traps such as chasing attention, pretending, misdirection and bullshit. I like to think I dance to the beat of my own shutter. Free will exists, right?

Anything I create, I aim to transfer some kind of feeling.. a feeling I have felt myself, to the viewer. If I can share some sliver of an experience, what it was to be there, with someone else.. and they can be transported to another place even just for a moment, I believe I have succeeded.

And yet even more than this, I believe in directed, considered, focused photography (& review/editing).. I’m almost never holding down the shutter and spraying, praying for a good shot.. I also don’t prefer to walk around without any idea or motive in mind. Images shot randomly and rapidly simply don’t have impact, to me at least. Not when compared to considered shots; you can feel the patience in certain images.

Social trends and medias have invaded our daily lives (notably here in my homeland, America 🇺🇸). Neurosis of all kinds have seeped into the psyche of most people now.. with a tendency to show only the flattering, to shy away from something which (may) be received poorly, or may cause a ripple.. the amount of pretend we play..

But the only trick we play is really on ourselves. The pretending we aren’t humans full of contradictions and illogical, emotional, complicated variables; it really is absurd. Our lives are imitating art more and more, it’s hard to know what is real and what isn’t when viewing through the stacked up filters of the internet, from phone apps and edited tweets to the filters processing and editing our photos for us.

(Traditional) Photography offer a view, hopefully a less constructed view, a less fabricated view of the world around us. The world as it really is can be seen through photographs.. or at least someone’s view of the world. What they saw, from the eyes of the photographer.

Happier, Still?

I don’t believe people are any happier since the invention of facebook and instagram, snapchat and the like.. and as much as I think technology is a net-positive in most cases, what are we pretending for? Who are we kidding?

Are we losing grip on the reality in front of our eyes, obsessed instead with cultivating the worlds of our own fantasy through use of our devices… Are we rolling down a slippery slope?

Eye to Eye

Further still, if I may, the social pressures which used to be reserved for specific environments and situations are now living with us in every moment.. never a break from the notifications and the intrusions.. unless we make a conscious effort not to divulge in the daily acts of apps.. (think of the children!) Perhaps nostalgia or romanticizing a better time is a fools errand.

I just can’t help but believe we are feeding social dysfunction; and dare I say I fear for what may happen next.

Call me old fashioned if you wish, but face to face interactions still matter, a lot. And here’s to hoping we don’t forget that.

special thanks to fodorfotos and tylermosesfilms for hanging out under the bridge