P is for Photography, a unique time machine to capture a moment, a specific time or situation, a past experience to relive indefinitely. This is pure magic. Photographs, light, composition, cameras, negatives, contact sheets, digital or in a laboratory… The special ingredients to capture each fleeting moment.
Today anyone can snap a photo, even with a mobile phone. But are you aware of the immense skill involved? Taking a photo is so much more than simply pressing a button. Past geniuses, together with our current technology, have given us the opportunity we have today, to pick up a camera, similar to a paintbrush, and start painting with light.
To experience photography based on experimentation and chance can reward you with wonderful photographs, unexpected things. You don’t throw away a photo because it is over-exposed, too dark, blurry or somewhat unfocused, this may be the start of something, a door that opens to reveal a new range of possibilities, leaving perfection aside.
Susan Sontag: “Photography is, above all, a way of seeing the world.” A few years ago I read her wonderful book “On Photography”. If you are passionate about photography, this is a must-read. Not an easy book, it is very inspiring and helps to deeply understand the significance of this medium in art and life.
Many people work professionally with photography; others just dabble as a hobby; for some it is a form of artistic expression, however, all of them need passion, perseverance and love for what they do. You also have to read a lot, not only texts but also learn to read images, the more the better.
To obtain complete satisfaction of a photo well done, and when I mean well done, I do not mean technically perfect, you have to go through a flood of frustration. I think, for this reason, not everyone can be a photographer, though everyone has the opportunity.
With P is for Photography, we can never express enough how fortunate we are, those that have chosen this medium. For and because of all this, photography exists. Our images are our words.
This wonderful post was written by Anna Morago. What could be better than a photographer writing about photography?
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I’ll be posting each letter here on my blog, two per week. And if you’re just on-board, you can follow along on Facebook and Instagram. If you just want to see the images each week, you can follow The Alphabet Imaginarium directly! Hope you’re enjoying the journey so far.
Check out the rest of the letters so far:
The post P is for Photography – The Alphabet Imaginarium appeared first on Vera Ciria.