What Photography Means to Me
What Photography Means to Me
Brett Matlock
Everyone has a different interpretation of everything. In Marvin Heiferman's Photography Changes Everything, he explains how photography is one of the largest mediums, used by countless people everyday. With someone so big, it's bound to be seen by everyone differently. So people even argue about what should even count as photography.
For me, I believe photography is anything originating from a camera with only touch-ups. Fixing contrast, saturation, etc. is all good as long as the original photographed subject remains as you imaged it. Basically, if you take a picture of a dog and edit it to look like a fish, that's not photography, that's art. If you take a picture of a building and edit the amount of light or focus of the picture and maybe edit a distracting tree out, I believe that's photography. I believe photography is a moment in time that has been captured and preserved. I believe it is a way to look at what has happened, or see things you may not see again, or, if you are looking at someone else's photographs, see something you might not have the chance to see. Photography can convey emotions such as sadness or happiness depending on the subject matter.
Some people like to stage photographs to create interesting scenes or get a message or feeling across. I have no problem with this at all, but that's not my style. I am interested in nature photography, which is what I do most of the time. I'm trained to snap pictures of fleeting moments on a whim when the chance presents itself. That's how I enjoy photography. In Photography Changes Everything, Heiferman states, "photography changes who we are" and "photography changes what we see." These two lines near the end of the reading stand out to me because I relate very closely to them. Before photography, I never really payed attention to the world around me or tiny details. Now, these are all I look at. All the time I am now looking around and observing the things around me I never would have noticed before. I take my camera every place I go because I never know when an opportunity will present itself. Photography has definitely changed who I am.
Brett Matlock
Everyone has a different interpretation of everything. In Marvin Heiferman's Photography Changes Everything, he explains how photography is one of the largest mediums, used by countless people everyday. With someone so big, it's bound to be seen by everyone differently. So people even argue about what should even count as photography.
For me, I believe photography is anything originating from a camera with only touch-ups. Fixing contrast, saturation, etc. is all good as long as the original photographed subject remains as you imaged it. Basically, if you take a picture of a dog and edit it to look like a fish, that's not photography, that's art. If you take a picture of a building and edit the amount of light or focus of the picture and maybe edit a distracting tree out, I believe that's photography. I believe photography is a moment in time that has been captured and preserved. I believe it is a way to look at what has happened, or see things you may not see again, or, if you are looking at someone else's photographs, see something you might not have the chance to see. Photography can convey emotions such as sadness or happiness depending on the subject matter.
Some people like to stage photographs to create interesting scenes or get a message or feeling across. I have no problem with this at all, but that's not my style. I am interested in nature photography, which is what I do most of the time. I'm trained to snap pictures of fleeting moments on a whim when the chance presents itself. That's how I enjoy photography. In Photography Changes Everything, Heiferman states, "photography changes who we are" and "photography changes what we see." These two lines near the end of the reading stand out to me because I relate very closely to them. Before photography, I never really payed attention to the world around me or tiny details. Now, these are all I look at. All the time I am now looking around and observing the things around me I never would have noticed before. I take my camera every place I go because I never know when an opportunity will present itself. Photography has definitely changed who I am.
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