September 18th

" If I like many photographers, and I do, I account for this by noting a quality they share- Animation. They may or may not make a living by photography, but they are alive by it. "

When taking a successful photograph, you must live through it. Not in the way that your name lives on, but your experience. If there is no "animation", what is the point of the photograph?  We photograph to capture, to remember, to simply tell a story. To me, one of the most important aspects of a photograph is that it couldn't be taken by anyone else, and if it could be, how would you photograph it differently than through the eyes of another photographer? As Robert Adams says in the beginning of the reading, " Your own photography is never enough. Every photographer who has lasted has depended on other people's pictures too-" It is important to be influenced by other photographers and artists, but what are you contributing to your own photograph that makes it different and your own? If we continue to create things that have already been created, then what is the point? I believe the point of photographing is to show your perspective and point of view on a given situation. My goal as a photographer is to share my experience with my viewer, and maybe they won't feel the same way as I feel, but my intention is to leave them with any feeling as long as it's just as strong as my own, whether they agree or not. 

Something I've been doing recently is making rules for myself before photographing. I'm still trying to figure out if this makes photographing easier or harder as of right now, but I know it will definitely help me improve as a photographer. I think it will help me develop a better understanding and more clarity of what I am capable of. One main goal is to step out of my comfort zone which is something that Robert Adams mentions in the reading when he refers to his friend driving through the sun roof of his car and driving with his feet. Of course, this wouldn't be my literal idea of stepping out of my comfort zone, but I definitely think that when a photographer takes risks, they are able to make a stronger photograph. Recently, I just asked Cadisha, a girl that I graduated with to photograph her. I was extremely nervous because we weren't really friends, all I knew about her is that she has Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of cancer. This was something that I would never do a few months ago. It was not until I was introduced to Diane Arbus' work that I was inspired to create photographs of people that were out of my comfort zone, rather than photographing family and close friends.

This was the first time in my life that the experience of photographing, the process that lead me to my photograph, was just as riveting as the outcome of my photograph. I'm not saying I haven't been moved by the process of photographing, but there was something different when I was photographing Cadisha. I was not only proud of myself, but honored to be photographing such a beautiful person that I wouldn't have known if I didn't go out of my way to ask if I could photograph her.