Why do we like to take photographs?

<p>I like to take photographs of my dogs, strangers I see on the street, stormy weather, beach scenes and a few other things that pique my interest. I don't really know why, I just love doing it. I think it would be interesting to get a psychiatrist's opinion, then again, maybe not. Do any of you want to really know why you enjoy taking photographs? If the moderator of this forum thinks that this should go to the philosophy forum, please delete.</p>

<p>Because I can.<br>

Always have, since I was 10 and was given a 616 Brownie box camera.<br>

If someone can recommend a good detox center, I'd appreciate it ;-)</p>

<p><Chas></p>

<p> </p>

<p>I like the act and effect of changing my perception of reality to the extent that I can create something new and different by comparison to what I see through the camera's viewfinder and in post edits. Photography makes that happen quite easily and rapidly. It's much like magic.</p>

<p>To preserve something for those who follow us. I appreciate my relatives in the late 1800s documenting their families and surroundings...it helped me get a perspective on how events changed their lives, and how I could relate to them and those surroundings in their ageing years. I've watched the local landscape and job market drastically change from an agrarian one to one filled with highways, vibrant towns and, of course, shopping. I can't really imagine what my great grandkids will perceive as the norm, but I'd like to show them how things once were. That's what drives me.</p>

<p>When you take a picture of someone you love, and look at that picture in the future, you fall in love all over again.</p>

<p>Mimesis, imitation, is one answer.</p>

<p>I've had very similar thoughts, Stephen. I remember looking across the James River near Jamestown. Over four centuries ago, there were only Native Americans, with very minimal impact on the land. Then there was a small European settlement. Today there are roads and ferries, but it's still a pretty place. In another century, I doubt you'll be able to look in any direction and not see urban sprawl. There might not be many "natural" places left on our planet. </p>

<p>And yes, when I look back just over my own lifetime, I feel almost as though my youth was spent on another planet. I feel I am lucky to have lived in a relatively good period in human history, and I'm not particularly optimistic for future generations. Let's hope all our photography, here and now, means something to future generations -- a distant memory of when the Earth was still green and pretty, when man didn't live shoulder to shoulder, stacked to the sky, perhaps the last years of free societies. Our world, right now, is almost certainly an extraordinary place -- perhaps not to us, but probably to future generations.</p>

<p>Maybe something about control? The idea of capturing something more or less permanently within a square or rectangle...maybe it's a way of imposing a certain kind of order on a fast-moving, changing reality? Just a thought.</p>

<p>It's a form of therapy....when you focus on all the details....and simultaneously shutting off the world :>). This is just one of many reasons.....</p>

<p>Les</p>

<p>...a way of showing other people the world through our eyes?<br>

...as a way of editing, organising the world?<br /> ....as a means of distancing ourselves from the realities of the world?</p>

<p>because I need it, i need that time to BE, to live the present, alone, and feel fulfilled at the very moment when I shoot a picture. Yoga, running and taking photographs provide the best feeling of fulfilment and peace within.</p>

<p>Like Les said, it's therapeutic. I find nature photography in particular to be very meditative. I enjoy just standing there patiently, watching life in action, and every so often, capturing a moment that looks particularly interesting. Overall, I just like the idea of capturing moments in time that fascinate me. I also like the idea of using the camera's capabilities to create 'art,' though I've really just started exploring that area.</p>

<p>As part of the analysis -- do you take photographs for yourself? Do you show your work to others? Do you care what other think of your photographs? I've been taking photographs for well over 50 years. Fo a good part of that time I was doing it professionally, so I will exclude that, because those were really someone else's photographs and I was simply the vehicle to realize them. Over that time my reasons have changed. At one time I was eager to show my photographs and cared a lot about how others felt about them and I sought our praise. Now, I seek out criticism, if anything. I see my photography as a hobby and one of the visual arts and much more "graphic" than "photo." My brief, but wonderful time with Ansel Adams way back in the '60s imparted that previsualization of the image as foundational. For example, I'm planning a two day photo event in Northern Arizona six weeks from now. It is an area I have been to many times before. I will probably spend at least 100 hours planning for the dozen or so shots I want to get. I have the kernel of the images well in mind already, which is why I have the precise locations mapped out, but I'm contemplating the light, post processing, etc. I enjoy the whole process from the conception through the execution. It may take months to produce a single image -- or I may fail completely and have to do it again -- that is not a bad result. The process is every bit as important, or maybe more important, than the result.</p>

<p>Mostly because the alternative, not taking photos, is less appealing, except of course when not taking photos is more appealing in which case I don't take photos.</p>

<p>I like to look at pictures.</p>

<p>Memories, places, stuff we've done and want to relive. The challenge of shooting something difficult and getting a good photo. To share first with family, then with friends, then with anyone else that might be interested. We take trips to take photos, not the other way around. Not sure why, and don't care because it makes us take trips.</p>

<p>1 - create something<br>

2 - express myself<br>

3 - show people something<br>

4 - connect with the folks I shoot<br>

5 - give the people I shoot space to express themselves and an opportunity to be seen</p>

<p>Fred, . . . I simply can't resist! . . .</p>

<p>Maybe using the word "Photograph" instead of shoot in your last two points sounds much more like you!</p>

<p>I just can't imagine connecting (as you intended) with the folks one shoots! Lol!</p>

<p>My desire in taking photographs grew tremendously while in the military stationed on Guam in the late 70's.<br>

Guam could become very boring over a two plus year tour of duty if one did not get involved in either Snorkeling, Scuba Diving or some form of "Water activities."</p>

<p>From my first adventure of Snorkeling and observing what lay beneath the waves, . . . "at that moment I knew that I had to share all that beauty with the world!"<br>

And, at that time, Underwater Photography was a fairly new & exciting world too!<br>

Now, it's mostly Nature & Wildlife but, the same drive is still there!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For me, it is about trying to document and conserve the past. I feel a compulsion to record the past.</p>

<p>Ditto what Charles said at the beginning of this thread, except my first camera was an Ansco. (I still have it.)</p>

<p>It's like adding a new orifice to my body. What's not to like about it?</p>

<p>When I was a kid I thought taking photographs with my Brownie Reflex was pretty neat. I liked to take photos of steam engines, those dinosaurs that roamed the earth and are now pretty much gone. But I still have their images. You can never forget a 4-6-6-4. Then I did it to make a living. I got to go places and see people I would never have met in my tiny home town on the prairie, like Groucho Marx, Muhammad Ali and the Olympics in Mexico City. I also got to know some lovely young ladies because of my camera.<br>

Today I rescue old film cameras, more dinosaurs that are disappearing. These days, sometimes I print my photojournalism images, taken for the moment and not for posterity, and show them on art gallery walls. A great way to meet a lot of interesting people. You gotta get away from the Boob Tube and do something. I do not have cable TV. I am too busy.</p>

 

<p>.</p>

 

<p>Because I can't draw, paint, sing, play music, dance or write. So I shoot, cook, drink and eat. And as has been stated, because I can. And maybe simply because I've swallowed the Nikon/Canon cool-aide a long time ago. Regardless, I enjoy it. It's like scratching a persistent itch, or ogling a sexy lass. Or knocking down an especially great beer or wine because it's there to be drunk (a beer that has not been drunk has missed its calling).<br /> Cheers.</p>

<p>To share how I see the world. To hide behind a camera and observe and immerse. Because I feel a need to take photos. And a healthy dose of therapeutic wandering about, relaxing, looking....<br>

So, what others wrote already.</p>