Why do I pursue photography?
Why do I pursue photography?
Many people ask the above question to me and sometime I had asked myself the same question. What is it that motivates and interests me to pursue this activity?
Innocence
Personally speaking I take photos to connect with my friends and express what I have experienced. Sometimes the photo comes out with great visual delight but that is not the intention always. Stating in one line I pursue photography as a hobby and which lets me to express myself and the feelings experienced which are difficult for me to express in true sense through the words.
Many articles are found on weblogs/websites stating fancy titles such as “Top 10 reasons for photography” etc. Although most of them state many common reasons like to make the world view things in different way , or to show my imagination and some even say it as a way to become famous etc...but still many views which revolve around are surficial. Essentially everyone speaks that one of the key reason of photography is to communicate with the audience and receive some feedback (desired may be positive but equally important is the negative feedback too).
When I tried to delve further into this issue I came across the broader questions like What is art? There are also crude views existing that photography may not be called as form of art as anyone and everyone can take photos easily, thanks to the era of digital world providing easily affordable quality digital cameras and mobile phones. So the question arises that Does Photography qualifies as art?
So I delve into the chasm of philosophical question “What is art and why do people pursue the art various forms?” . The work of Leo Tolstoy of “What is art?” forms the basis of my discussion.
As Tolstoy says in his work “The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another manʹs expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. “
The implications of this statement is huge and one really has to go deep down through actions of discourse to understand “What qualifies as art form”, “What is the purpose of art forms”. I limit myself in the blog post to bring clarity about what is art?
Art is defined as “Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.”
Most times we associate art with pleasure and beauty which is not the true aim of art.
The main objective of art is to express your feelings and experiences in the way which makes others (target audience of the art) feel that they knew the things but had been unable to express it. This is the thread which binds the artist and its receiver. It becomes simple to understand when we consider , let say a highly popular movie , in which people agree with the events and the role of protagonist and feel the same way as protagonist. The audience feel the urge that movie has expressed just the thing which they had longed wished to express. This as mentioned by Tolstoy is called as infection and the degree of infectiousness is the sole measure of excellence in art.
The excellence achieved by art depends on
- Degree of Individuality with which feeling is transmitted
- Clarity of the art
- Sincerity of the artist
Pleasure and beauty may be the end result of the art but they can never be the objective. Thus if we talk about photography then it qualifies for art if it is sought for transmitting one’s feeling which would be unable to express in the form of argument. The quote that “picture speaks a thousand words” thus seems to be justified for the pure photography art. Many of the celebrated photographers take photos which tell a story. It might also bring pleasure with its embedded beauty but that may not be always the case.
In the end I like to end this write up with a fantastic line which goes as follows
“Great works of art are only great because they are accessible and comprehensible to everyone”.
Good article indeed !! you should start taking “writing” as a hobby too !