Photography – like many art forms, it is subjective in nature. I have long struggled with the idea of calling myself an artist when it comes to my work in photography. For the longest time, photography was a medium all to itself. I felt more like a historian, documenting the world as I traveled through it. After all, my idol was Ansel Adams with his crisp lines and dramatic tones. My ignorance was telling me that his images were perfect recreations of what was really in existence – and that’s what most of my early work consisted of: Shooting what I saw. Photographers like Annie Leibovitz, in my younger mind, were the real photographic artists. They used the medium as a way to document what could otherwise be considered performance art or sculpture.
I’ve learned a lot. I learned that photography is not about what exists, but what you see. I learned that many people are unable to see the world the way I see it, and my work is the best way to show it to them. I learned this as a result of two personal experiences. First was a photography class I took in high school where our teacher set up some objects on a desk and asked the class to photograph it. Those of us who were (at the time) a little less artistically inclined shot what we saw. But there was one girl submitted a photograph taken from under the desk and titled it “Destination Lost”. But the thing that made it all click (for me) was a scene from the movie American Beauty (1999) where the daughter’s boyfriend shares his video of the “most beautiful thing he’s ever filmed”. The subject? A plastic bag dancing in the wind. I would agree, the bag was quite beautiful if taken in the proper context. But it took someone to document it in a way that I could understand why.
Suddenly, everything made sense. The art in photography is about looking for a perspective. Perhaps it’s something entirely unique. Or perhaps its just the details that people disregard as they move through their busy lives. And even if it is about documenting a time or a place, its about preserving an emotion through careful composition and lighting. I see now that Adams introduced the world to Yellowstone National Park through his photography. This is something that I didn’t understand simply because these photos, and the works of many mimics, have been around for decades. So without understanding the context, I didn’t realize that it was in fact a new perspective for the era. No longer do I separate Adams from Leibovitz. For that matter, I don’t separate either of them from Monet or Van Gough. They are all artists.
And so am I.
Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that so that my purpose is clear.
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