What Does Your Photography Mean to You?

Photography awakens my soul & provides a way to express what I feel about nature and life. It has changed the way I view the world, because I now notice what I used to take for granted. It has opened a whole new world for me that I can enjoy and share with others.

Rick, Dr. Zakia's story about the blind man puts it all in perspective. Thanks for sharing.

Photography for me is a form of expression, a way to capture a spectacular moment. Photography allows you to share this moment with others. It also allows to highlight elements that people may ignore, the intricate details of a flower or the many contrasts of a shadow.

I love everything about being behind the lens!
I am able to capture and share the endless miracles of Desert nature and share them with so many.
It becomes a constant circle of learning, discovery and sharing.

Photography teaches me how to see in alternate ways and offers a look at the complexity of the small (macro). It has taught me to "see" what we usually miss. For this I am grateful. I find beauty where once before I hurried by.

Through photography I learned to see. And as a consequence, my appreciation for the natural world has grown even deeper than it already was. I will forever be grateful for that.

Hey Rick,
Nice work. I often find, when I ask my students this question, that the first answer
is just the beginning. I encourage them to think about photography from a LIFE perspective...
For me, to be a photographer means that I have the opportunity to engage the world in an
ever expanding way. The more I create a (my) greater awareness, the more wonder I see.
It's always been there....it's just a matter of seeing. These are the topics that I find my
students are most interested in hearing about. Perhaps it's because it's what I'm most
passionately pursuing?

What does my photography mean to me? My photography means the world to me. It makes me notice things that I probably would never even be aware of otherwise. In a way it awakens my "senses". Not only just sight but my other senses as well. It also leaves me vulnerable to the outside world. I can express things "visually" that I would never be able to express "verbally". Sometimes it makes me cry and other times it can leave me hysterically laughing. People can either choose to just look at my images for "face value" or if they care to dig deeper they can learn a little bit about what's going on "inside my head". I would be dead inside without it!

Once again, great article Rick!

Hi Rick,

Interesting article...I do ask myself that often on what my photography means to me. For me it's not only being part of a moment frozen in time with a photograph, but it is also a memory I leave of what my eyes sees.

Thanks for sharing the article!

Cheers,
Maria

HI Andy

I think your wonderful IR work hold and reveals secrets . . .

Take care,
rick

Hey Rick, great stuff. I'm a firm believer as well, that we can learn something new every day. I think that's why I love teaching so much, because I always learn something from my workshop students!

I loved the response "revealing secrets" as I really enjoy photos that have many meanings.

Hi David... Another new one!

Thank you.

Rick

Any person who wishes to commit "art" using Photography or any other medium, then distributes it has an ego, warranted or not, that is saying that "what I have to share is important for other people to experience. And if successful my work will survive my inevitable death and will keep my name alive".

Sometimes that happens as a matter of course like the recently deceased Bernie Boston's poignant image of a Vietnam war protester placing a daisy down the barrel of a soldiers rifle that will live forever as a symbol of "FLOWER POWER".

So for me,i guess, my photography is a selfish attempt to live forever.

David A. Page
Fine Arts Photographer (ret.)
Duke University

After reading my suggestion about captions, my good friend, Dr. Richard Zakia author of Perception and Imaging, sent me a note - and asked me to share with you.

Here goes.

Blind man with no legs sitting in a park begging. Sign beside him reads, Have Compassion. I am blind. People walk by and pretty much ignore the man, sign and hat for coins.

Well dressed business man walks past him then turns around, stands in front of the man. He picks up the sign, writes something on the back and places the sign back where it was but with what he wrote showing.
People continue to walk by but now are dropping coins and bills into the hat. The blind man is thrilled and collects the coin.

The businessman returns and the blind man inquires as to what he wrote on the sign. The business man replies,
Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.

Dick also mentioned this in his email:

I always reminded my students that a caption is
part of the photograph, part of the gestalt--just as the choice of mat and
frame, and the size of the print and the surface of the paper etc.