I was revisiting Harold Rosenberg’s 1952 essay “The American Action Painters” where he characterizes the painting method of the New York school artists not aesthetically, but instead by their chosen process of creation. This made me dive into why I like photography. Specifically, digging into the individuality, ephemeral and simultaneously perpetual aspects of photography.
I enjoy the fact that a photograph is deeply personal. No two people can recreate the exact same photo. It’s almost as if, through a photo, I (literally) see the word through your lens. I get a glance into your brain and perspective; what moves you, what motivates you, what inspires you to immortalize. While this is true for all art, I think photography is distinguished because I see what one mindfully gives ones attention to thereby providing the observer insight into the creator’s individuality. What do you focus on?
Also, in my opinion, photographs have the ability to capture time, from immortalizing fleeting moments to being able to transport one to a period in time. When I look at a photograph from the past not only am I transported back to a certain time, but also revisiting a specific memory as a specific version of the past.
Memory is fallible. Our remembrance of things past is imperfect; the remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were. Recollection in the present does distort the reality of the past.
Lastly, film photography holds a special place in my heart. It is because film captures perfect moments imperfectly, making them authentic: light leaks, blurry photos, poor exposure all add to the beauty of capture.
Photography, therefore, is the nearest thing to life; it is an imperfect mode of documenting, recollecting, and amplifying experience.