Why are you a photographer?

[antoniobassiphotography]

Hey Paul, thanks for stopping by. I took a look at your ink drawings... extremely good work, I

think your female bodies have an extraordinary potential (I say potential because they look

like you suddenly stopped working on them...). Unfinished business? I think you have to start

from there ... I wish I could draw like you. I don't want to say something stupid but you sound

like you are still searching for your purpose in life, just like me... I feel, after almost six years

of darkness, doubt and fear of making the wrong choices, that I am on the right track now.

You are very "mysterious", I wish you could open up and tell us more, your message sounds

like the list for the grocery store... no offense...

[aplumpton]

It encourages me to see things that I may not otherwise see and to see the beauty in

the subjects I discover, including what light does to them. After that, it is nice to

communicate my perceptions to others and to understand how they view the images,

not always as I do, of course.

[fullmetalphotograper]

Why does the sun come up? Or are the stars just pin holes in the curtain of night, who

knows? -Ramirez (Highlander)

 

For me it was the perfect art form: one part art: one part science and one part alchemy.

IThere is not another form of art that I knows of that expand a moment of time, real or

imaginary. It has been my excuse to explore the world around me and in my head. I have

seen great beauty and incredible horrors. I have seen the worst in men and the best in

them. What a rush! I have gotten to good the bad and the ugly in myself. How many

people can say that, besides I couldn't make it as a punker.

[GerrySiegel]

"Before (photography,) I preferred to sleep later in the morning.Now I find myself rising at the crack of dawn to take advantage of an unusual light effect or, perhaps for some special morning activities. I have climbed mountains, trudged through snow, splashed through rain, sought out places and done things I never would have dreamed of doing before the (photography) bug it me."

 

Antonio, I now ask this,-- has the photography bug taken you on any personal odysseys? Made you get up too early or pull some all nighters in the cold? Do something daring or perhaps even a little dangerous?

 

Anybody else care to speak to that motivation described by a guy named Lloyd, Harold.He is dead but his sentiment rings true for me. If it encurages,Arthur P. in way I read your statement Arthur, that is maybe enough. Sharing to me is a sine qua non for artists,not only nice. Performance has to be a slice of the creative endeavor---,painting, piano,writing and all---,that is the nub of my philosophy of photography for now. Money reward can be a byway is all.

[kristina_kraft]

Antonio, that's really an interesting post you put. Photography came to me on a rather spontaneous way. During my artistic education of scenography (for theater and film), when I was 18 years old. I have found an old dad's camera Beirette in the closet. And during my trips to the museums and galleries in Vienna, I was capturing an arhitecture, but without any single intention to become involved deeper. As I said, it came spontaneous. I was much in the play in those times. And the photos were really bad. During the last five years, I'm taking it serious. I'm exhibiting, selling it. I'm composing. And, like Gerry said, doing my own odyssey.

 

Here I'm posting my first photo from 1996. A facade of a Sezession gallery.

[laurent-paul]

Kristina,

Very nice first photo : A nice "NSK"/"IRWIN" feel ...

[kristina_kraft]

Can you be more specific, Laurent? Could you give me a web link about "NSK" and "Irwin".

[laurent-paul]

Sorry Kristina, seeing you were from Zagreb, I thought you would perhaps remember them :-)

 

I was refereing to some of their very early work.

 

here is a link :

 

<a href="http://www.nskstate.com/index.php" >Official web site</a>

[pnital]

Interesting stories comes with your topic, Antonio. with the digital age, nearly everyone is taking photos, I think that many have a way to express themselves.

 

I graduated art school and was painting and exhibiting my work for some long years. In 1993 I did a series of paintings that was a dialogue with 2 painters and a sculpture( Eduard Munch, Botticelli, and Vigeland). Observing their works I used my old camera( don't even remember its name...). if was a challenge and I decided to learn photography, did it for 2 years and became strongly hooked.... switched to photography completely.

 

I see the camera as tool for creating, like the brush for the painter, or a chisel for the sculpture, or the word for a writer/poet.

 

It helps me to see the world in a new way, and create my point of view of what I see. I exhibite and sell my photos.

[felixg]

Thinking about it since yesterday, and bearing in mind that this forum is <b>philosophy</b> of photography, I've come back to the "I can't draw" thing.</p>

<p> it seems to me that this simply pushes the question away without answering it. If you are a photographer because you can't draw, then Antonio's question becomes: why did you want to draw?

[kristina_kraft]

Laurent, No I don't have their "passport". Behind NSK and Irwin lies the Leibach. I know that group, I have never liked them. Not my style. They are over burden with the socialism of ex Yugoslavia, and politics in general. I can't experience them and their art. The music of Leibach is to dark for me. Although, me and they might have similarities, I look different at things and experiencing life in a different way.

I have totally forgot them. Thank you for reminding me.

[laurent-paul]

Christina, I never thought you had their passport, and yes the whole movment was, and is very political. But the one thing we can't deny, is that for the first time in History, that an artistic movment was at the origin of a major political system. I'm not saying this is good or bad, I'm just speaking about the fact.

 

I have seen the photos on your portfolio, and I understand very well that you see life in a conpletely different way. And that is why I was suprise to see your "first" photo posted here, which is quite different from what you are doing today, but for some reasons remind me of the early IRWIN work.

 

And it is interesting that they are now already forgotten : Perhaps you were too young when Ex-Yougolslavia did split up, and perhaps, at the time NSK was founded, this expression of seeing life throught its drakest side, was shared by a majority of the people.

 

If they start to be forgotten today, this is probably because there is no reason anymore to look and express this darkness, and it may be thanks to them that now it is easier to look at life in a brighter way.

[laurent-paul]

* Kristina : Sorry for having transformed your name into french :-)

[laurent-paul]

and damn, I really should read twice before hitting "submit"

 

* [...]that an artistic movment was at the origin of a major political CHANGE.

[kristina_kraft]

Thank you Laurent for such a nice explanation. I think you said it right. I was 13 when the splitting of Ex-Yugo has started.

And, it doesn't matter you changed my name into French version.

[cyanatic]

Felix Grant said, "I've come back to the "I can't draw" thing. It seems to me that this simply pushes the question away without answering it. If you are a photographer because you can't draw, then Antonio's question becomes: why did you want to draw?"

 

For me, partly a flip answer, partly an "after the fact" realization. A more serious, and far lengthier response follows:

 

From a very young age (pre-adolescent), I have been driven to express myself (and my take on the world around me) creatively. For many years this drive took the form of writing. Short stories, poetry, and plays. Family members, teachers and friends pegged me as a future writer. I graduated college with a BA in Journalism that I never ended up utilizing in my work career. By the time I reached my late 30's, my writing efforts had yielded two minor staged readings of plays, and a work of short fiction published in an obscure literary magazine. My foray into playwriting sidetracked in a five-year stint as a stage actor that generated supplementary income (far more than my writing ever did), but not enough to quit my day job. It was really just a lark that paid...as I had no desire to pursue a career in acting.

 

In my 40's, a reacquaintance with playing blues harmonica (and the discovery that I had a fairly decent singing voice) resulted in seven or so years of fronting a local blues band. Again, this garnered more cash than fiction writing ever did. But it was just another creative byway that I had no serious intention of pursuing.

 

Someone once said something to the effect that the world is full of mediocre talent. I stumbled into paid gigs as an actor and blues musician, but I doubt that I could have made a livelihood from either one. Regardless, it had always been writing that I preferred as a vocation. But I lacked the obsessive drive that would have kept me at the keyboard.

 

Because I never demonstrated a natural gift for drawing, I never pursued it. But the manner in which I wanted to creatively express myself (which involved sharing my view of some aspect of the world) was similar in both painting/photography and short story writing. Even more so, come to think of it. The goal of most of my attempts at literary fiction was express a feeling in such a way that the reader (or at least some readers) would also feel it. Looking back, I realize now that I always loved looking at certain paintings and photographs and wanted to evoke similar sensations through my short fiction.

 

Three or four years ago I bought a digital point and shoot as I was tired of going the disposable camera route for family photographs. Some two years ago I found out about flickr and became enamored of some of the HDR photographs I saw. Although I eventually gave up HDR in favor of a "as close to out of the box as possible" approach, it led to photography becoming my primary, and most satisfactory, mode of creative expression. In a great many ways, it was like coming home. And my drive to photograph is, well, obsessive. It is not something I question, analyze, or seek out...it merely is.

 

Far from being "easier" than painting, I think photography is in many ways more difficult. If I had painting skills, I could, perhaps, create a scene that expressed a particular mood or feeling -- in precisely the way that I wanted to (yes, yes, yes, I know it's not that simple...but just go with me here...).

 

So...if anyone has borne with me this long...there you have a longer, more serious, and more personal response to the original question.

[vdp]

When my father passed away in 1989 I was clearing out his apartment. I saw his Contax RTS and his Nikon Fm2. I looked through the lens of the Nikon and thought it was fantastic. My sister took the Nikon so I got the Contax and I have been photographing ever since.

[constance_cook]

Until about 18 months ago, I thought I was a photographer although I don't really like photographers all that much. Now, I think I take photographs. I take them to document what I see; they are a passport in foreign lands and a way to make me think.

 

I read most of the fora here, participate in several and people wonder why I read those that I'm not using. The reason is that when I change direction and want to try something I haven't before, I already have ideas about how to go about it. It doesn't eliminate failure but I move along the learning curve much faster.

 

The constant complaints about the rating system and the insistence of several that you shouldn't be allowed to critique or, in some cases be a community member unless you posted your work got me thinking. I take photos for myself. Sure, many times I show them to others. I have done a couple of shows a year until this past year, donated photos for our silent auction and my office has many (too many) to view. But I don't want them zinging around the internet. They are private, meaning really mine. Many are of people I do or don't know who gave no permission for worldwide viewing. It doesn't matter to me that if they are in public view they are fair game. That it's legal doesn't make it right from my own value system so I don't do it. That's when I began to think I'm not a photographer. I think I'm a personal historian of my life as I saw it at a particular point in time.

 

I'm not about to quit taking photographs. I will go on learning everything I can.

 

"I therefore come before you armed with the delusions of adequacy with which so many of us equip ourselves."

 

Air Vice Marshall A. D. Button

 

I will keep working on that adequacy and in 17 years, it has improved markedly.

 

Conni

[joe_jackson4]

Steve, you said:

 

"Far from being "easier" than painting, I think photography is in many ways more difficult. If I had painting skills, I could, perhaps, create a scene that expressed a particular mood or feeling -- in precisely the way that I wanted to (yes, yes, yes, I know it's not that simple...but just go with me here...)."

 

Hmm, I'm not entirely convinced you want us to go there... :)

 

Yes, if you had painting skills, perhaps expressing mood through painting would be easy for you.

 

So, if you personally find that "photography is in many ways more difficult", well, what are we to conclude...? That your photography skills are poor...? Or that your technical skills are good, but you have difficulties expressing a particular mood or feeling through your photographs...?

 

Or are you saying that it's fundamentally more difficult for anyone to express a particular mood or feeling through a photograph than through a painting?

 

What's your real point here, Steve?

[dickhilker]

"If you are a photographer because you can't draw, then Antonio's question becomes: why did you want to draw?"

 

My reason was simply that drawing and painting were what I identified as real art and were the area of expertise of someone I loved and respected. I had no exposure to the works of significant photographers (no pun intended!) and the only magazines in our home that contained interesting photos in the thirties and forties were National Geographic and Life, both of which seemed too remote for me to relate to them. Snapshots were taken by doting parents, but photographs were the realm of world travelers with huge, expensive cameras.

[mcpoljak2003]

For fortune and glory.

[david_dorcich1]

For debt and obscurity.

[antoniobassiphotography]

This forum post is great, I'm glad I did it. So many very interesting stories, I just love sharing

and remembering them. Sometimes it is very good to go back to the origins of whatever we

do and check if the original "fire" and motivation are still there. If you still have your very first

shot, even if it's bad, please go ahead and post it. For all the "philosophical" photographers

that believe in the infinite value of art, talent, vision etc. I have a wonderful reading to

suggest that is being incredibly inspiring: "The Ongoing Moment", by Geoff Dyer. I am not

going to say anything further about it, just go to a bookstore and check it out yourself, you

won't be disappointed.

[kristina_kraft]

Antonio, thanks for the reference!

 

Marc, your portfolio inspired me. Your forms are just amazing.

[chris_waller]

In my own case I took my first photographs at the age of 12 to record the last days of the railway branch-line and exchange sidings for the local colliery just as they were being ripped up in the 'modernisation'. The railway-sidings had been my childhood stamping-ground and I wanted a record of it. I have gone on ever since recording things beofre they disappear so that I can see how they were, and so that other people can see what I see.

 

Ultimately, it seems to be a desire to protect against loss, although rationally I know that to be futile.