Actually, it is a very good question. I believe many people (consumers) only take pictures, when ever there's a family event to remember - a birthday or some sort of family get together. And they only photograph people they know. So, when I'm photographing strangers, they start to wonder why.
I once did some quite nice portraits of a young woman. I showed them to a colleague at work. She asked; Who is she? I answered: I don't really know her, but doesn't she look nice? My colleague quickly lost any interest in my photographs. The lesson I learned was, that lots of people don't look at the photographs as such. They look at the people IN the photographs. Photographs as such are not at all interesting - to most people. A good photograph is a photograph that shows a relative or a friend the way the he or she wants to remember this person. Noting else really matters. Once a famous photographer, who died suddenly, left behind thousands of photographs showing a white cup. The journalists started to wonder why. They began speculations abuot weather the photographer had gone mad or perhaps was looking for some mystery - a message form the universe - like the alchemists did*. No one seemed to understand that the white cup may very well have been the photographers way of testing lenses, developers, lighting etc. ;) Not even the journalist saw the photographs as - photographs. They looked at the cup! Do any of you guys remember who this photographer was? Note * (The alchemists did not really try to make gold - they made the Kings, who paid for the experiments, believe so, in order to get the financing, but they were really looking for messages form the universe - or something similar - so I've read) Jens Bladt http://www.jensbladt.dk +45 56 63 77 11 +45 23 43 85 77 Skype: jensbladt248 -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] vegne af Boris Liberman Sendt: 7. juli 2006 19:56 Til: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Emne: Re: OT: Why do you take pictures? Hi! > Jens Bladt wrote: >> While doing panoramas earlier today - at the beach - a young woman asked me: >> Why do you take pictures? >> Out of nowhere, I came upp with this (rather arrogant) answer: Because I'm a >> photographer. >> I expected her to give me problems or to follow up on the question - but she >> didn't. To my big surprise, she accepted my answer. >> I will perhaps use the same answer again. >> >> http://www.jensbladt.dk/pano/Badestranden2.html >> Jens Bladt >> http://www.jensbladt.dk >> >> > How about "Why not?" Ann, I am with you here ;-). Although with all honesty - I take pictures because, well, because it is so much different from everything else I do every day... Boris -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.9/382 - Release Date: 07/04/2006 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.10/383 - Release Date: 07/07/2006 -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
