the person, or the equipment, the film and paper

[~andi]

tools are good smalltalk material. "hey, have you seen the latest TurboLux2000 8x10 with hypertonic auto-darkslide-coupler??" ... "yes, that's great, but what about the Saltprocessmaster 700 with a hexagonal-dongle-doubler at kickstarter".... "yeah nice, let's have another beer here..."... haha

Andi

 

[Ian Leake]

i guess i should have had the question
and title:

what are your internal, intangible and psychological reasons for making photographs

Sorry, I missed your update.

I make photos because I enjoy making them. And because I get more pleasure from the ones that work, than frustration from the ones that don't. And because I get a real thrill from other people liking my photos enough to want to hang them on their wall.

I love seeing real, emotive photographs. I've seen photos that have left me spiritually uplifted, have knotted my stomach, and have shaped my opinions.

I wish it was possible to have serious, deep online discussions about aesthetics, motivations and artistic growth. But public forums are truly terrible for this. So it's easier to talk about process.

 

[blockend]

Most amateur photographers are front end focused - it's all about the gear. A few even admit they're not especially interested in the outcome, and couldn't take a great photograph to save their lives. The camera is a toy to play with, and that has always been the case. For every Barnack Leica sold to a Cartier-Bresson, they sold a thousand to a dentist to photograph kittens and sunsets.

In film days every image ended in a print or a slide, and there was a clear difference between an enprint from the chemist and a hand printed 10 x 8. Now a tiny fraction of the photographs taken finish up as hard copy, and that's true of film photographs. Most are viewed on line. There's almost nothing aesthetically between an iPhone, a good compact and a professional DSLR shot to 99% of people viewing it.

 

[pdeeh]

There's almost nothing aesthetically between an iPhone, a good compact and a professional DSLR shot to 99% of people viewing it.

and you could add "or of course, film" between "DSLR" and "shot"