Couple – © John Neel
Time is a commodity more valuable than money. Have you ever thought of photography in terms of time commodity?
Photography is generally viewed as the recording of time. We also consider it to be a way of stopping time.
As well, we spend a lot of time pursuing photography, and we generally use photography to record the points in time, which we find interesting. Photography is recreational time for many and a lifetime pursuit for others. No matter how we might define it, the element of time is part of the reality of the camera. At its basic level, a photograph is the recording of light and time. When we learn to use it wisely, photographic time is a way to understand our world.
What we choose to include in our time captures is probably of most importance. The choice of subject and its impact on our lives plays a critical role in determining the value of our time spent making images. Time value becomes a means of prioritizing what we should be focusing our attention on when we photograph.
Out of the choices that may come out of that consideration, how do you eliminate those things, which might seem trivial? Do you think about the possible ramifications or the consequences of your choices? Are there any criteria that you use for determining the value you offer to the reader? What do you use to decide how and what you might shoot? What are you attempting to show the viewer? There are a number of questions to ask.
I believe there are questions that every so-called photographer should ask when contemplating the taking of a picture. Doing so will help the process and perhaps make the image more valuable to your audience. It will also make the results more valuable to you.
To make images that do nothing to move us forward is a serious misuse of your time. It is your time spent. It fails to bring us closer to any understanding what is out there to see. It fails to produce good value for the time you have consumed.
But as an even greater concern, it is a failure in that it wastes the time of your intended audience. If the work offers nothing new, shows nothing insightful, fails to question or provoke, it is of little real value to anyone who might look. The work becomes useless and therefore cheats your viewers out of what may have been time better spent somewhere else or looking at the good stuff.
What is the good stuff?
I would say, that photography is something that should be considered for its capacity to teach us something new. That concept seems to be more open than closed. In life there are many things to realize and to discuss. There is much to see and much to learn. Those same things can be the stimulus for image making.
Photography isn’t meant to simply be a likeness to an object or a scene. The subject itself has more value. Likewise, contrary to what many seem to think, it has little to nothing to do with sharpness, software, camera type or brand. It really has nothing much to do with technique or appearances. Those things are secondary to the idea of an image and its true value to your audience. Rather, it should be about something deeper that is revealed by the subject. The subject/object becomes a symbol or a catalyst for understanding something else. In a great photograph, it becomes a metaphor for something more profound.
How you utilize technique and process should be governed by what you want your audience to realize from the image. They are more or less the compositional elements that will allow the viewer to understand the work. They should be used to best enhance the message that you are after. They are tools, which are useful for supporting the intended message/significance of the photograph.
Photography can be a way to discover. It is a way to question. It can also be a way to reason. It is a form of contemplation. Its real value is in what it can reveal about the world. The camera is capable of seeing things that we do not. Seeing and recording with a camera can alter your way of thinking. The sharing of what you see can allow others to experience what you might have learned.
Photography in its highest form engenders revelation. The great photograph allows us to connect with our world and with each other through a kind of heightened awareness. That heightened awareness elevates what is depicted into something, which can alter our sense of the world. It becomes a mechanism for understanding and personal growth. It is a way to explore the world in light of truth. Hopefully, we end up with a greater appreciation for what we are and where we live. Photography, when used well, is a way to bring people closer, make us more humane and give us a truer perspective about existence.
It is that kind of image that has the most compensation for those who seek it though a cameras lens and is the most rewarding to those who see it in our works. It is photographic time well spent for everyone.
The photographs that do these things are rare. But they are the images that are most worthy of all our time.
Please have a look at some of my other posts here.
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