[Leica] why we photograph?

[dlridings at gmail.com (Daniel Ridings)]

On 4/3/06, B. D. Colen <bdcolen@comcast.net> wrote:

> A. Why do you photograph?
> B. What's your primary subject matter?
> C. Why?

I've given machine-gun answers to these questions way back when you
placed them (months, a year or so ago). So I'll try and give them
thought this time.

a) Why?

Man, these questions are easier to ask than they are to answer.

Basically, I don't have a choice, well, I do. No one has a gun to my
head, but I still don't have a choice. I just have to.

Why do I have to?

I think maybe I see something in a unique way. That uniqueness might
be very trivial, but in some way or form, I am communicating a visual
that _I_ see and want to share.

Why do I want to share? I really don't know. Perhaps it's a way of
keeping a memory of me alive longer than I will be alive. Perhaps my
children will show their children or their grandchildren some of my
pictures and I will be mentioned decades after I'm gone. Vanity?

I also have things to say about some things but find I can say it
easier visually than verbally.

Kind of like my awkwardness now.

b) Primary subject matter?

I like to think it is people. It frustrates me that some of the
photographs that I have taken that are the most popular with others
are some nature shots.

Man-made artefacts. Subject matter that conveys the fact I am 1) a
foreigner always slightly out of place or 2) I am in the midst of the
people I love.

c) Why?

Because people mean more to me than places.

At least I tried.

Daniel