I have been getting an itch to do some photography. Been hanging out with too many people who have that interest. I started looking for interesting architecture in SF and finding a lot I want to take pictures of with a zoom lens.
Why?
What will I do with these pictures? I am not good enough to even come close to art. My main product is documentation type of photos. Ones that show you what is there, all of it, not ones that evoke an emotion or mood. One I have taken these photos, in whatever artistic form I might get near, then what? I have no use for this sort of thing. I would love to have a class assignment to complete. Or a friend that has a need or desire that I could pass them onto. But I don’t.
I have enjoyed creating art but have never done it for the sake of just doing it. My creations, my maker tendencies are focused on creating something I have a use for, something I want. I am not really a fan of the process but really like the end product. That is usually what gets me to finish things.
Maybe my focus on making things for the end product is based entirely on my idea that there has to be a use for whatever is created, or there is no reason to create.
I can enjoy other people’s creations, not my own. Sort of like trying to tickle yourself, it just doesn’t work.
I take pictures because it’s fun, it’s challenging, and it’s a window for others to see how I see the world. (At its best, anyway.) I also take pictures because I can’t draw or paint or sing, and writing doesn’t always quite cut it.
If you’re feeling the itch, scratch it. You can’t get better without doing, and if eventually it’s not working for you, well, it’ll be easier to give up, and some of what you learned might help any documentary pictures you wind up taking.
but the point isn’t about getting better. That is a very low priority. In a way I don’t care about getting better.
What I am looking for is a purpose for taking the photos. Once there is a purpose, then there would be a reason to get better. I will never be good enough to get the photos I really want. That takes a life’s dedication and I know myself better than that.
I don’t find it fun, it just is. How can it be challenging if there isn’t anything you are trying to accomplish. I don’t think I see the world differently than others, I think about it differently and put it together differently but visually it is pretty much the same.
When I draw or paint or write, it is with a purpose. I want what I am producing or I am trying some new technique to see what I can get out of it so I can include it in my abilities for when I want what I can produce with it. Or it is for a class. I very much appreciate having class assignments to make things because I wouldn’t on my own.
Singing I do for how it feels. Same with dancing. I like the interaction with my environment. I really like it when I can do it with others, to be part of a whole. I am moderately good at both but not really good and I am happy with that. I actually don’t practice because I don’t want my focus to become about the technique in a way that would limit who I could interact with. If I became a really good dancer, I would get frustrated with the so-so and bad dancers and the other really good dancers are in high demand and not very available. I like being mediocre.
I am taking some pictures (they will go up on facebook soon). I just don’t know why. Pictures for me are memory bookmarks. You look at them and you are drawn into the moment or the visuals are captured for reference (a lot of my costume photos are for this). They remind me of what my brain has let go of. The type of pictures that are itching me are the more artistic types, shape and light and texture. I don’t have a purpose for those.
This confuses me. I am willing to give it a try but I don’t know what I am trying to learn or get better at or accomplish or do with the results. I don’t know the purpose of this itch so I don’t know what to do with it.
(thanks for giving me some feedback for me to push against. It helps a lot when you do this.)
What is the purpose of art anyway? It could be said that it has no real purpose except to keep the creator from going insane by not making it – and even at that, it sometimes fails. If your brain is saying “This is cool, I should take a picture of it”, listen to it.
I’ve taken my fair share of pictures that have no seeming purpose save that a particular shape caught my eye at that moment. Sometimes I save them, sometimes I don’t. But at least, having taken the picture, I can decide what to do with it later.
I’ve been up for a while, and we may be talking at cross-purposes here. If so, sorry. If not, yay.
perhaps try this just to DO it and not for an end result (hard I know)
but it is neat to see what comes out of the lens and how it differs from what you ‘see’
and do you have to be ‘good enough’ and also, what the hell does that mean
maybe scratch this itch to help you focus on the art of the process and not focus on the product that comes from said process
as the other poster said, you can’t get better at something if you don’t practice at it