As part of your life, what do you use photography for?

[michaellinder]

<p>I'll start by listing what I don't use photography for in my life - making money, a mere hobby, and simply recording events and people in my life and in the lives of others. Please don't think that I am demeaning these activities, because for many people they are meaningful. I do not purport to legislate to anyone what they should consider meaningful.</p>

<p>For me, photography has had two main purposes, both equally as important. First, it is a form of self-help, self-therapy, relaxation, meditation, stress relief - call it what you will. Secondly, it has become my primary creative outlet. Throughout my life I have played music (mostly piano), but my loss of technical skills and music theory has frustrated me. I've also dabbled in the writing of poetry, but that has been rather private, intended mostly for my family and friends. Photography is the only creative endeavor I've ever carried out in public.</p>

[chris_waller]

<p>Primarily to make a record of the world as I see it. Some people write a diary, I take photographs.</p>

[michaellinder]

<p>Wouter, I'm fascinated by your referring to seeing logic in the world. You follow the term "logic" with "lucidity." Does this mean that photography is a way for you to make sense out of the world? I ask because I don't consider logic and making sense as equivalent.</p>

[bethe_fisher]

<p>Sometimes photography is an excuse to get out and walk through the woods (I'd feel naked without a camera). Many times, it's an attempt to not just record what I see but also how I feel about it. Maybe I'm the only one who will "get" both of those in my photos, but I'm the one who sees them mostly anyway. <br>

When I was still working as a forensic chemist, it was definitely what balanced my work life. Taking the time to see the beauty in a leaf or stream kept me closer to sane when work showed me man's inhumanity to man every day. </p>

<p>And can we please have more food photos and recipes? I'm in a cooking rut lately and need some easy and tasty new ideas. </p>

[Sanford]

<p>I surprised that at an equipment oriented site like photo.net no one has mentioned that they just like to use some of the cool cameras available today.</p>

[jimpete]

<p>Just the best way to get away from the humdrum or commotion of life. Nice to be able to get out on your own and see the world as no one else does and see what happens. Of course that takes a lot of patience/time, but is worth it.</p>

[LineMartel]

<p>To me photography is truly a life saver! A few years back, following some very traumatic events in my life, I found myself plunging into a deep depression. It got very dark and unsettling leading to very dark thoughts... Art has always been a safe harbor for me, so I decided to buy a camera and committed myself to take at least one photo everyday. This therapy turned into a passion. Photography is part of my daily life, it brings life to me! It is much like sailing, it is a communion with your environment that no one else shares.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Michael,</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Does this mean that photography is a way for you to make sense out of the world?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Well, yes and no - there was a bit hyperbole in my description. Logic for me in this context can also be seeing the structure and shapes of an architecture, rather than the decorative details. A structure and form in a landscape... things are reduced to objects and forms to create a composition. And this sets a mood (or way of thinking), which helps me scratch below the surface, simplify things and make them more lucid and organised. Quality time behind the viewfinder helps me organising my thoughts and ideas.</p>

<p>Sanford, maybe photo.net isn't such an equipment oriented site as you seem to think?</p>

[michaellinder]

<p>Back to the basics of things, if I understand you correctly, Wouter?</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Yes, in a nutshell that's it, Michael.</p>

[Allen Herbert]

<p>Enjoyment, and the pleasure of following our natural desires.</p>

<p>We all have the innate desire to express ourselves....call it Art. We try to look further than the place we are in; we want to travel somewhere else. And sometimes we find it.</p>

<p>So we call it Art. The journey to another place...the success of humanity. Imagination.</p>

<p> </p>

[GerrySiegel]

Springboards of memory. Mostly people in their environment going a lot time back and now digitized. I was early mesmorized by stereo photography, a big thing at one time, A huge thing in late 19 th century before TV etc.

The faces of my life, the people that inhabit. Good times and so so times stuck in amber via photos. Thanks to good old Kodachrome, still colorful. More reminiscences would take a long time and a few beers to tell s history with silver gelatin and digital. Much like most I expect. I can paint too, but I am impatient with tubes and glazes..<div></div>

[edwardchen]

<p>it is pretty much summed up from previous responses.</p>

[johne37179]

<p>An interesting question. The role of photography in my life has changed over the years from providing my living to what it has become now that I'm 70 plus years old and well beyond being a photographer for more than 50 of those years. Photography has replaced my sketch pad, paper, canvas, paint, etc. With some arthritis that prevents me from manually creating graphics as I once did, digital photography allows me to start with a digital image and work toward the graphic concept that I use to execute with ink washes, paints, etc. years ago. Digital photography opens so many artistic opportunities and horizons beyond traditional photography that it is a very enriching part of my life today -- in the creation of graphics that started out as photos... maybe it is graph-photory. I tend to put the graphic in front of the photo in my final vision.</p>