2 milli-blog - new years resolutions - what is the point of photography?
#update
parents:: milli-blog
daily note:: 2025-01-01
I spent a lot of time last night thinking about photography (New Year's eve isn't the most conducive to sleeping, especially with sound insulation that makes it feel like there's a megaphone pointed into my room). Picturing myself sniping at a fancy Stata dinner or at smiling kids in their caps and gowns.
But my issue is that... I actually think that most photography is boring. I started following some photographers on instagram, and while initially awed, over time they just started to feel really repetitive.
Which begs the question: what is the point of photography?
- Is it to tell a story?
- Maybe this is where journalistic photography falls. There's an inherent purpose to taking pictures: to convey to the reader information or a feeling that words alone fail to do.
- I think this is where I see the most value in photography these days.
- Event photography I would also place under this. It's to tell a story either to the rest of the world (here is how great MIT Chemical Engineering is!) or to tell a story to your future self (look! I graduated!).
- Although more purposeful, I'd still classify this as an art form.
- Is it to be aesthetically pleasing?
- This area is where I see myself being disillusioned to new photography. It just seems that new photography often feels so... not new. And this should be expected, at least for "standard" genres like landscape, cityscape, portraiture... The novelty of these forms of photography relies primarily on (1) change in the real world (2) and technological improvements.
- The latter hasn't been a real factor for years. Sure cameras get bigger sensors or work faster. But the effect of these technological improvements on that 10,025th picture of Kirkjufell doesn't really make it any prettier than the 125th.
- The former does happen, but at a rather slow pace.
- This isn't to say that I don't think there's novel and interesting photography. It's just the novel photography requires really going out of your way to construct a new niche. For instance, I follow an account on instagram called "marin_mushrooms" that fills my feed with colors and shapes that I've never seen before.
- Why is photography especially prone to stagnation?
- Because, unlike other art forms (I'm thinking of writing and painting), photography isn't combinatorial. It's limited by what is truly out there. If I get bored of the real world, I can't just go and make up a picture of a lion in a bathing suit chowing down on a plate of deep fried brussels sprouts (she's gone vegan after seeing horrible images of the conditions in antelope farms)
- Is it for myself?
- I want to become better at noticing the world around me. The initial impetus to even start thinking about photography last year was the observation that I'd failed, despite having been in Cambridge for 8 months, to notice, first of all, that there even were fire hydrants on every street corner--or the fact that they are all blue!
So, the question is, is it worth making photography into a new year's resolution?
The resolution:
- Continue to take pay attention to the world around me. On at least 3 walks per week, focus on the world around me.
- Get into event photography:
Yes, I broke my self imposed 20 minute blogging limit today. Oh well.