The True Power of Photography

I think people forget some of the true power of photography. We get

caught up in our lives trying to make art, expressing ourselves,

being different, creative - or even falling prey to the pitched

battle of the film versus digital wars in the quest to be ?right.?

 

I've had a strange experience this last week, and it reminded me of

the true power of photography.

 

Three years ago, a long time friend of mine asked me to come to his

50th wedding anniversary party. It's a 190 mile trip from my house

to his, so, wanting to take advantage of the opportunity - and living

in New Mexico - I took a lot of cameras for the trip from Albuquerque

to Farmington. I figured, hey - might be a photo opportunity along

the way and I don't want to miss the chance of taking an "important"

photograph.

 

Important being - important to me.

 

The party had lots of people and everyone wanted to talk with Jim and

Clara. Finally, I cornered him and said, ?Jim, I want to take a

photo of you and Clara, and we have to do it soon because I have to

get back to Albuquerque.?

 

I did the photo, nothing of note artistically because of the people

coming in and out of the house, the distraction of people watching me

make the photos and ?partying.? I got home, took the film out of the

camera, and with all good intentions put it?some place.

 

Three weeks ago I got back from a trip, and is my usual habit I went

through all of my photo cases removing exposed film. I had the film

developed and the negative film contacted printed. A week later (the

film lab was slow) I picked up the film and, there amongst the

contact prints ? the pictures of Jim and Clara.

 

I said to myself, ?Well, you finally got them developed.? ?You?ll

have to look at the film and make some prints.? A week and a half

went by and I got a phone call from Jim?s oldest son telling me his

dad had died and asking could I come to the funeral?

 

I kicked it into high gear, looked at the film and picked a frame

that I thought the family would like best. Not art, not the one I

liked best, but the one that would best help them remember somebody

that could not be replaced.

 

I scanned the film and turned out 11x11-inch prints on my Epson 9600 ?

one for each member of the family - all in one day.

 

After the funeral, we went to their house where I showed the print to

Clara. She just said, ?Oh...my...God....? ?I want that print put up

immediately? ?Put it up on the fire place mantel right now.?

 

I did that.

 

It?s not art. It?s really not even that good of a photo. I found

out that may really not matter. To a small group of people ? it may

be the most important photograph ever taken.

 

That?s the true power of photography.

I'm sorry for your loss. I registered just now to tell you that what you said made an impact on me. Its so true, and I've seen similar events. Sometimes the photo's are hard to look at after such an event. I'm glad you took the time to make the drive, as I'm sure you are.

 

Thank you for posting!

 

Robert

This kind of follows (in this case) from "you don't know what you've got till it's gone!" And yes, the loss of the original (in this case your friend - no disrespect intended at all) makes the recorded memories all the more important and valuable. This is true, and also applies to less emotional events, such as photographing an old house, which is the very next week demolished... I agree with your statement about photography having such a power.

Several years ago I had a friend that I was doing some work for come into my the studio with a local lad. The friend told the lad - "...while we're here you should let him take some photos of you..."

 

He was an interesting character to the eye, the odd scar and with a few apparent bruses from fighting, obviously a rough-and-ready street kid, so I did. I shot him in some boxing / fighting stances and that was that.

 

Two weeks later he was shot dead in a local drugs gang dispute. I had taken the last photos of him in his all-to-short life, and, as it turned out, some of the very, very few photos that his family had ever taken of him. And yet, because he was a really rough looking kind of character this was someone that most photographers, except maybe street shooters, wouldn't really have considered doing photos of voluntarily, and he would not have ever thought to seek one out to have photos taken.

 

Got a local reputation, after that, for "having friends in low places", sort of like "photographer to the local gangsters", and which description I tend to wear with some pride and satisfaction.

Steve,

 

My business specializes in pet photography. Now, I'm not an amazing photographer. Heck! If PN ratings are any measure, I'm just above average, but with enough business sense and passion to make money at it. The point is, in my work I see many pet owners deal with the aging and eventual loss of their best friends.

 

On several of these occasions, I have provided these people with prints of their pets (usually some candid shot they didn't even know I took). More often than not, the picture has brought these people to tears. I certainly don't like making people cry, but it does feel good to know I am helping these people preserve the memory of someone they loved so much.

Steve, I know and truly understand the feelings involved; I've been there, too. That is but one reason I started out in photography some years ago. I recently saw a quote and I'd like to share it with you, "Let the camera keep for generations what the eye only sees for a moment." Your words have illustrated the meaning of this quote most eloquently.

 

Imagine the joy and the many wonderful memories you've brought with your photo; they need not be work of art to be appreciated.

 

I share in your loss.

Steve,

You've just highlighted the difference between 'art' photos and 'snapshots'. 99.99% of all phots taken are essentially snapshots. They preserve the memory and occasion of a time and event. It is this 'power' of the camera that's responsible for the 100 milliom unit sales world-wide. No need (for me, at least) to feel snobbish about this.

 

The camera also serves the purpose of 'accurately' recording the event. Composition, mood and effect etc. come from the art world, namely painting. Early photographers often tried to imitate paintings with their photographs.

 

It's sometimes said that the adage, 'the photograph never lies' is wrong. The photograph can lie. Sure it can, with a deliberate effort.

 

I'd rephrase the adage; the snapshot never lies.

 

One of my favourite fantasies, which has to remain a fantasy because I have no expectation that Science will ever bring this to a reality, is to travel to a different time period, say the time of Jesus Christ, with a Canon 20D.

 

The photos I would bring back would tell the real story. And I'd bet they would be very different from Mel Gibson's 'The passion of Christ'.

This is what i like about photography, to give a real service to or for people. In other art forms like drawing and painting the artist is so much in front of the theme, that it is mostly about the artist and not the object. The photographer stays in the back if he wants to and yet his vision is required to pull out the quality of the object.

Kind of invisible servant of beauty.

All of these entries confirm for me, that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Images can be validated for many legitimate reasons beyond "aesthetic" and "original."

Bernd,

"The photographer stays in the back if he wants to and yet his vision is required to pull out the quality of the object. Kind of invisible servant of beauty."

 

We're getting a little bit romantic here, aren't we? You're not wearing rose coloured glasses by any chance, are you?

 

Nevertheless, I like it. Good phrase! I'm a bit concerned though by the servant aspect. A servant is a servant, of beauty or anything else.

Raymond,

I am not wearing glasses physically and hope I dont wear rose glasses mentally. With beauty isnt necesarrily meant physical beauty, of course, also not the romantic luna but anything that is positive inspiration.

The serving, yes, makes me feel good, because the serving aspect in this context means identification. Servant not in the sense of superior and inferior or Lord and slave, nothing of that kind.

We definitely have to remember what we started for....like if we could fly bacward, to see where we came from, other than where we are directed..

 

I was looking to the photos of an holiday, an intense one....this was yesterday late night...suddenly, I could feel sounds and flavors of a particular place and moment..

 

It was a really intense sensation, and I thinked that photography can be way more than a 2 dimension experience..

 

Best regards..

So many good comments. It is odd that in many cases of strong emotions over a photo (where the photo may not be Art or an exceptional shot) we would cherish the photo not for itself but for the connection to the real object, person, pet or what ever. As humans trigger those emotions not on printed words but by complex sensations of view, smell, or sound, we can be greatly moved by some photo that clicks on a recent or long lost memorys relating to that impression. Yes very powerful.

The question might also be. Is a great photo one that reaches out and grabs us without some trigger to the subconcious. I am not sure. I think back to photos that do that and wonder what made me attach myself to that image???<div></div>

We visited my ageing but fit and spritely uncle Roy in August. My wife took her little

2MP digital camera. A couple of snaps of our six-month old daughter were taken

sitting on my uncle's lap. Two days later uncle Roy was dead after a sudden,

devastating heart attack.

 

The pictures are low resolution digital and of no particular photographic merit. To the

family they are some of the most precious we have taken.

 

The power of the Photograph lies in its ability to preserve for all time a precious

moment and memories of that which is dear to us, whether that be a relative, a

celebrity, an event or a landscape feature.

 

A Photograph has the power to move, to awe, to revulse, to inspire.

 

Digital, 35mm, MF, 5x4, Glass plate ets. - all are legitimate mediums of photographic

expression, and the march of time and technological innovation only serves to offer

different ways of arriving at the same point - the still image and its silent power.

I think it is the power of fetichism rather than the power of photography.

O.: yes.

 

A single "true" "power"? I don't think so.

 

A primary base, facile attraction of photography for most people is that it preserves

something where memory fades. It is a voucher to a time and place, implicitly

documenting something as true. I don't think most serious photographers consider that

to be true.

I would like to first state I share the loss of your friend, Steve. I would also like to start a bit of an experience and keep it somewhat short if I can mainly because last night I slept only an hour making some images.

 

I am a student, I do fashion photography. I feel the pump and the gloss, I still cant get it in my images though. I want the gloss but I want the truth as well. the truth is not necesarily there in fashion. David Hurn shows plenty of truth, Richard Avedon (works on the American West) show plenty of it as well in a fashionable way. Last night I stayed making images so I could present them today to my class and professor. I was depicting a song, so to speak. As the verses go, the images go with them. Many liked the images I made, but I felt so many of them (my peers) got the amazing gift of showing feeling in their images. I seem to have lost something my professor back in the US stated to me already, the gift of feeling, sense, usually love inide the images.

 

I spent several days and this is my second week in not getting more than 5 hours of sleep because of my projects and another co-op with a make up artist I worked with. I started not sleeping at night when I had to finish several images for my make up artist on a tuesday night. On saturday night I go to her place to deliver the prints. The second set of 2. I was going also to tell her that I was not willing to work with her no more because, although the work is good, she takes too long to do make up (2+ hours. often 3) I arrive at her place and give her the prints. She had a bitter face and when I asked if she was ok, she replied, bursting into tears heavily, her father had died on that day.

 

All of the sudden I remembered my father, and only his image back in Bolivia. He is 94 now, and I, oh so much, wish with al my heart for him to live as long as whatever the major force ruling our lives allows him to. he is the cornerstone of my life along with my family. The one sponsor of the amazing gift of studying photography at one of the best schools in the world. I have pictures of him, and when I took them a thought passed through my mind, that those will be part of the images that I can keep after.......well you know what I mean. Oh glorious photography, liar of liars in the most profitable business and keeper of the truth in its pure escence. May we all here be grateful we are alive in a time where we can practically preserve those moments that will become, distant.

 

cheers,

Steve, I'm sorry for your loss. "Let the camera keep for generations what the eye only sees for a moment." I only wish I was a better photographer for that very reason.

(This example isn't the same as a person, but it's still important to me.) I recently have been exploring an abandoned steam plant. Words cannot express the power of being in the place - Catwalks galore, insane plumbing and machinery sticking out everywhere, giant vats under the catwalks, 5 or so floors w/ basement and many sublevels; dangerous as hell. Industry, real-life 1920s-'70s(?) industry. It's almost like what you see on movies, kids exploring factories - all-access to a large unknown building. When exploring, it's as if it belongs to you - yours, even if only for just a moment.

Light was a big problem inside, but on the roof there are awesome views of dowtown, especially at night. Unfortunately my tripod isn't too great so bulb is out (even bulb releases don't work great), and my camera has no settings longer than 1/8s. I wanna go back and get photos of the inside and re-do the roof shots, except the place was demolished. We knew it didn't have very long, a friend of mine did some school research papers on it; he's probably the most knowledgeable person at the moment when it comes to the building's history. Came back once to see it fenced off with half of the building missing. I had really grown attached to the place, having the ability to explore something so big, so intense... But, boom, no longer can anyone see it. Gone, forever. Don't get lazy, don't hesitate, you see a shot, go for it, it might never be there again.