Photographing People

Comments on my last blog on beauty were so interesting that I thought, rather than address them in a comment, I'd do it with another blog. Robin Andrea made an interesting observation as she suggested a reason parents might stop photographing their children as they reached their teen years, something I had mentioned happened with me without knowing the reason why-- other than what I might guess.

To start with, I admit I have a thing about photography and in particular when the subject is people. I see interesting faces and covet either painting or photographing them. I admire books by photographers of people. As soon as I saw Annie Leibovitz had put out a book called A Photographer's Life 1990 - 2005, I ordered it from Amazon.

What was so cool about her book, besides the fact she is such a gifted photographer, was how she incorporated the philosophy I have always had-- your life not only is your art, but you can't and shouldn't separate them.

We are creating art work whether we do fine art, crafts or nothing because our life is our art. Last fall in their weekly newsletter, there was this great quote in Heron Dance which says it better than I could (Incidentally I found Heron Dance through Sacred Ordinary, bookmarked to the side here, when Fran wrote about it).

"What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine you are a masterpiece unfolding each second of every day, a work of art taking for with every breath." ........ Thomas Crum

I have long believed this way and then along came Annie Leibovitz's book which so beautifully wove together her family, ordinary people and then all those glamorous people she is paid to photograph. She has pictures of herself taken by her lover, Susan Sontag, self portraits, photos of Sontag as she was battling cancer, and the kinds of photos we all take but done by a master artist.

The reason for us to photograph ourselves, our children, our grandchildren is not only because we are cute or we are having fun but to create a record of our lives that we can look back on. Why does that matter? That was answered well by some of the commenters on the last blog.

We too often see ourselves through other's eyes and what they say about us helps us decide who we are-- that is at the time. Then along comes later and we look back on those old photographs of us doing this or that and suddenly we see ourselves in a new light. We realize that hey we were pretty cute after all --even if our family didn't think so. And that matters for today. When we see that perhaps we let someone else define us back then; we can see maybe we are doing the same thing today. We can look at those photos of today and realize we are more than what we critically see in the mirror.

Photographs are something I use all the time with my painting. I photograph what I am doing, sometimes at several stages and see uh oh, that is out of proportion or this is working but that is not. The photograph is a neutral view of what we might look in the mirror and see more critically.

I was one to photograph my kids all of their lives-- still do. In their teen years they hated it, but I think they now understand the reason for it. It gave them a record that they can look back on and put together with their inner memories to create an expanded view of what was which can actually enhance what is. I used to photograph even the oops moments because they are all part of who we are.

For me, I enjoy photographing myself. It's like an art challenge that every so often will come to me and out comes the camera and a set up. This particular one I am sharing because I thought it was fun to shoot. I was looking for a way to illustrate a woman with the fire, casually posed, suggesting earth woman. I used me as I usually do because I rarely have anybody else as willing to get used. I took quite a few that day from various angles and found one that I felt best illustrated what I had in mind.

To me, it wasn't about whether it looked like me although it is me and an unaltered version. Because it is an angle I don't see of myself in mirrors, I asked my husband if he thought it looked like me. He said very much but agreed not from a perspective most would ever see as it's above and looking down at the woman.

Then I showed it to a good friend, who is also an artist, and mentioned I might use it here. She said, well you could comment that photographs don't always look like us... Okay, I can accept that it might not look like the outside me, but the real aim of a photograph is not simply that it looks like us. We can get that by standing in front of the camera, arms at our sides, and smiling, but the real goal for a creative photograph is for it to capture more. There is always the possibility we can get one that shows the inner person, captures their essence. My friend suggested a title for this one, which I liked a lot-- goddess of the hearth.

That is why, I believe we should photograph ourselves and others. Yes, record our lives; but sometimes we will find one that illuminates more than the exterior. Unless you are unusually gifted in photography, it takes a lot of pictures, a lot of work to learn to do that, but I think the payback is worth it.