My Photo Philosophy - Photography 2 Poject

This is what I submitted for my Photography 2 class. It was pretty much an honest piece on how I got into photography, my highs and lows and just my honest opinion on some photographers. I hope you guys take some time to have a read of it because I really enjoyed writing it, all the way to 3am as usual but it's one of the more enjoyable essays I've written for uni.

Growing up, I wasn’t fond of photographs and always thought taking photographs were a burden. Like any other kid, all I wanted to do was run around and play, but my parents were always making me pose with them for photos and taking away my play time. It didn’t get better at birthday parties or family gatherings as I was always forced to awkwardly take photos with relatives instead of playing with my cousins. At that age, I thought taking photographs were just a “thing” to do at parties and events. It wasn’t until I got older that I started to understand the importance of taking photos, the ability to capture a point in time and treasure it forever, but I still wasn’t fond of taking them, it was just such a chore.

When I finished high school my Dad brought home a Digital SLR and I thought nothing much of it until I decided to take it with me to a car show to get some photos of the cars. At that show I bumped into an old friend from school who also had a DSLR and we went around taking photos of cars together as he was showing me how to use my Dad’s DSLR. It was at that show that I learnt about shutter speeds and how I was able to capture a photo of a car in very low-light conditions just by slowing down the shutter speed. I also learnt another lesson that was just as important, I needed a tripod because my hands weren’t as steady as I thought they were with a lot of my shots being blurry that night.

Countless nights were then spent on the internet learning about aperture, shutter speeds, ISO and all of the different modes available on a DSLR. I would bring my Dad’s DSLR with me to every car show I went to and I made sure I got my hands on a tripod as well. My photos were then shared on car forums online and I would be getting feedback and I would keep trying to improve my photos at the next event. These events included track days, where cars would be racing around a racetrack and here I learnt how slow shutter speeds allowed me to show movement in my photos and how difficult it actually is to do panning shots.

On these car forums there were a mix of amateur, emerging and professional photographers and I looked up to all of them for inspiration, as their photos were of quality I would only see in high-end car magazines and I wanted to take photos just like theirs. I thought that if they could do it, so could I. From there I realized I was able to take decent photos of cars, whether they were static or racing around a racetrack and members of car forums started to notice my improvements as well.

Not long after a friend, who writes for an international car website, approached myself and asked if I wanted to provide media coverage of a popular race event for them and I was ecstatic as this opportunity. I was provided with a media pass that allowed me to have access to the media room and parts of the track that normal spectators aren’t allowed on. It was also the first time that I realized that it wasn’t all fun and games being a photographer, there was much more to it. Running from one end of the track to the other trying to get the right shot, frantically uploading all the shots in the media room, staying back late after the event finished and processing the photos so they can be uploaded immediately. Over the three days, I learnt that it was quite a tough job but I loved every moment of it, sitting in the media room with international automotive journalists and photographers, guys whose work I would only read about and see online or in car magazines. That is something I’d never forget. It was a great experience and it opened my eyes to what it actually takes to do their job – a lot of hard work.

It was at the same event that I made one of my biggest mistakes. As the three day even wrapped up I was packing away my camera gear as well as a couple of lenses I borrowed from a friend. Switching lenses between bodies and so forth, I put my friend’s lens, which is quite expensive, on my camera body and threw it over my shoulder and started walking out of the media room. As I stepped outside the lens fell from the camera and hit the hard concrete ground. I had forgotten to lock the lens in place. I frantically picked up the lens and tried putting it on to make sure it was still ok, hoping that it wasn’t damaged. Unfortunately the mounting ring was bent and I could hear broken glass inside the lens. It was a horrible end to what would have been a perfect weekend for me. Looking back it was still a good weekend overall as I managed to take away so much even if it did cost me a fair amount of money to replace my friend’s lens.

By this time, I thought I was quite competent with a camera but only if I were to photograph a car. I was clueless when it came to portrait or landscape shots. It was then I decided to take up Photography 1 so my eyes could be opened a bit more to world of photography, especially since the luxuries of digital technologies were taken away from me and I was forced to use black and white film and a camera in manual mode. Photography 1 put me back on square one and whatever advantages I thought I had were gone the moment class started and it felt nice to see things with a fresh eye as I went about completing that course.

Now moving onto Photography 2, it has opened my eyes even more as I’m taken back to a time of intellectual romance between the creative minds of photographers, writers and other artists of their time. The stories told in class of how one photographer used to spend a lot of time with other influential figures of their time just baffles me. I’ve never thought that all these creative minds would have crossed paths at one time or another let alone spend quite a bit of time with each other. I find that very intriguing and it fuels my curiosity into finding out more about these photographers and how they’re all connected.

Sally Mann produced a photo that I had embarrassingly thought was by Robert Frank, thanks to the mighty power of the internet. This photo was of a young girl holding a cigarette and just staring straight into the camera like she didn’t even care the photo was being taken. I was later informed that the photo belongs to Sally Mann and I did a bit of research on her. Although that portrait caught my attention, it was her landscape photos that tugged at my emotions. The eerie feeling in all of her landscape photos didn’t help me sleep at night at all, they were just so powerful even though it was usually just a pond, or some trees in the frame. There’s just this distinct feeling that I was right in the middle of a horror movie and something bad was about to happen. I can honestly say that I haven’t experienced those emotions with any other photographer’s work I’ve seen so far.

Naturally the next photographer I looked into was Robert Frank. Although there isn’t one photo that grabs my attention like Sally Mann’s one, his photos as a series were quite interesting, especially the ones from his book, The Americans. It’s astounding that he was able to paint a picture of America at the time through his photographs. It was so diverse and unique, from young children to grandparents, Caucasians and African Americans and everything in between at the time. It’s as though everyone he photographed had a different story to tell, they all had their ups and downs and this is where they currently are in their point of life, going about their daily business. His photos have a very natural feel to them, when looking at his photos I feel as though I’m transported right back in time and I’m just an observer. It was like he wasn’t even there taking the photos and people were just doing what they’d do any other day of the week. I feel it’s like he’s observing them from afar, like when we go to see animals in their natural habitats from a distance to make sure we have no affect on their behavior. It’s very honest what we’re seeing in his photographs.

The other photographer I studied was Edward Weston, firstly due to his connection with so many other creative minds as briefly mentioned earlier. What I really like about his photos is how he’s able to show the similarities between the human body and pieces of vegetables. Usually I just eat my vegetables and don’t give them a second thought but his photographs have actually got me thinking about how we’re just as natural as a piece of vegetable, at the end of the day we belong to nature as much as a piece of vegetable. I’m not sure if he had made that connection before the photo was taken or not but it’s very intriguing that the connection was made. But like I said, the main thing that attracted me to Edward Weston was his connection with other great minds of his time who have become very influential and successful people in their respective fields. It makes me wonder about the conversations between them. What did they talk about? What were their interests? Who did they look to for inspiration? How did they all become so influential and successful?

As this is my final year at university, I’m a bit disappointed to not be able to continue photography and take on Photography 3 but I’m very glad I took on Photography 2 as an elective. It’s been one of the most thought provoking subjects I’ve taken and it’s a much lighter on my head than my science subjects. It’s good to exercise the other half of my brain. Not only have I learnt about the pioneers of photography but also their stories and how they came to be who they are and usually the journey is more important than the destination. From here I would love to continue taking photographs, I want to try my hand at street photography as I’ve quite enjoyed just going for walks with my camera in hand. The allure of black and white film is quite enjoyable also, it takes things back to basics and I really enjoy that. No fancy new technology, just myself, my camera and the undiscovered streets I’m yet to walk.