Why do we do what we do

[SteveH]

I have been wondering for some time why we take photos (not just LF), and thought that asking the question might spark some interesting personal comments.

Other than the obvious ones....'because its there' and 'because I make money', what drives us?

By virtue of being LF users we are a group of advanced photographers and I suspect that we have all thought about this at one time or another (especially with LF costing what it does).

There is a danger here though - thinking about this too much could damage your sanity . (Paul O may remember one LF photographer who, at a workshop in 2004, brought in boxes and boxes of stunning LF landscape prints that he has made and keeps at home, and was in the middle of a crisis about why he takes photos). So lets keep this light!

I'll add what drives me later, if this thread takes off

Steve

[Apple]

Hello Steve,

How's life after the Somerset workshop?

I guess I started taking photos as my Dad did (and still does a bit but it's almost Christmas on each end of a roll for him )

I have always leaned more towards the technical aspects of photography (being an engineer makes people have these particular "traits") and moved through 35mm, MF and then to LF as a way of satisfying the criteria of my main subjects - church photography. You eventually end up needing rising front at some point in the game so I took the LF plunge. Initially it was to use roll film but I happened to try a Grafmatic of Dad's and my first prints were on 10x8 paper so they were sharp and the detail I got meant there was no going back... As I now do 20x16 prints, I love the fine detail that's there and tend to write 35mm stuff off as mushy and over-enlarged

Another reason for using LF is that there aren't many of us around and it's classed as being "different" - it certainly is a talking point on a camera club trip. I just wish I / it was a bit quicker in certain aspects.

Over the years, we haven't really gone out to many places for various reasons so photography has been a bit of a way of getting out and about (even if it's a tour of the country's cathedrals... .)

Without wanting to sound big-headed and appear to be a through and through pot-hunter I've been reasonably successful with my type of pictures so it spurs you on to take more so the system goes full circle.

I haven't done much pictorial type photography and that's one reason for going on some of the LF workshops - OK, so I'm not going to rival Joe Cornish / Ansel Adams etc but it pushes my boundaries. I got my CPAGB letters earlier in the year and if I want to go for the next level - DPAGB then I need to expand my portfolio a bit as architecture / record is seen as "old hat" now.

Anyway, enough of the ramblings...

Andrew

[masch]

Steve,

Ah, the philosophy question...

Well, let's see, I used to "borrow" my dad's SLR when I was at school all the time, playing about with it. My usual joke was that it had only one fault: It wan't mine. The pictures at the time were pretty wild and probably best forgotten. However, it already showed that I was really enjoying the process, almost more than the result. The whole thing started calming down a lot and when going to Uni, stopped entirely.

A few years ago, I though woudln't it be nice to get one of these d****** cameras. Small, convenient, etc. etc. After a few weeks, I suddenly realised two things: the camera was, while very good at itself, not really sifficeint to keep me happy and I really liket some of the outcomes. One C&G course and 11 other cameras (SLR, RF, MF, pinhole, swing lens, etc.) later, I have arrived at a method where I enjoy the process as much as I do the outcome.

To a large extent, it is now a way for me to relax and get away from the stuff I do during the day (which is funnily enough, related to optics )
The main aim is to do something with a comfortable pace, that allows me to think of something completely different and basically "switch off" for a little while.

The outcome is a lot more important to me that it used to be all those years ago. I do actually enjoy looking at well made prints.
My own skill is probably moderate at best, but I don't really care. Taking a "good" shot and creating a decent print of it (wet printing or otherwise) is what it is all about for me.

As such, I would probably make a hopeless commercial photographer, simply because I wouldnt be working sufficiently fast enough to get through the shots I would need. I would, however, have an awful lot of fun doing it.

Hope this makes sense.....

Marc

[Charles Twist]

Well, avoiding the obvious answers is difficult: I have a strong love of the outdoors and I like to make a record of what I have seen. Basically I want to express myself artistically through a visual medium and photographing 'it' is a darn lot faster than painting 'it' - even with LF. It also gives a result which I deem to be of a far better quality. I think painting is better suited to abstract or symbolic rather than representational work. LF gives me the quality that makes the tool almost transparent, thereby increasing the amount of me in the picture. I think that defines why and what I photograph, and why it should be LF. Any use?
Charles

[uraniumnitrate]

There is no easy way to answer this question at all! I have reflected many times over things in the past and questioned what is that I’m doing and why! What’s the purpose behind all this. I have questioned the purpose of creation and the creating many times and it’s just rises more and more new unanswered question marks and answers are nowhere to be find!

I can definitely state that I’m not in it for money but, why than, you may ask? Here is the answer, I don’t know!

Could it be because I have that inside urge deep down to create and express myself? Or could it be because I’m trying to build up my own little world in this world where we speak of freedom but people is just to afraid to free themselves from themselves the people? Or it’s just simply because I want people to see and show the world what I see and how I see it? Or could it be because I want to give eye to the world to see things which is to hidden to see or that they just don’t want to see?

I’m a surrealist. My brush giving away dreams, a kind of world where I’m is I’m naked as a new born child whom not formed yet by the outside elements in that secret society of symbolisms! Is this a kind of self-destructive state of mind of the escape somewhere there I like to be, and stay there for a little while, or a new secret home? Than the reality which catches up fast, and all those things around me? The things that communicating with me! A kind of trange ways, that I can’t even find worlds to describe the feeling with? Its sure feels good! It feels good because than I don’t feel all alone.

[Bobbo]

I "take photos" as a visual note-taking method, either as keepsakes of events, places and people in my daily experiences, or as 'aid memoire' in my various activities so that I can review my methods and repeat/change them next time. I also use sound recording and video in the same way,..indeed, with the aid of my wifes tiny digital camera, I am now able to do all three functions very nearly at the same time with a thing that fits easily into my pocket, and review the material immediately.....a fantastic technological advance!

However, I also 'make' images using LF film. This is one of my several activities which all come from a deep creative sense of 'construction' which has always been part of my inate character. This has always gone hand in hand with the need to complete tasks and activities to the best standard that I can atain,....Yes, I'm a really boring old git!

[sandeha]

Cut wood and crystal,
Light bends low in still waters;
My own image forms.

[SteveH]

What an interesting and varied set of reasons. Me, I'm not really sure but most of the above play some part in it. I suppose I do it because...

I enjoy creative process of making an image, and LF is in my mind the best tool for this job.

I love the sound of a piece of precision engineering doing its job.

I enjoy learning new things. I want to explore.

Coming from 30 years of structured technical and managerial background, I know I am missing 'something' (not sure yet), perhaps the ability to create something - an image, a business - that is mine alone and not part of someone else's larger plan. Or perhaps a way of seeing that does not depend on flow charts and management models. Or even a new vocation (equine photographer). Someday I may find out, but for now a rough direction will have to be enough.

What I do know is that I want to enjoy the journey and meet new and interesting people on the way - like you lot.



Steve

[Bobbo]

Hi Steve,...Yours was an interesting post which I suspect has significance for many followers of this site,..I know it does for me.

Reading everyones posts and looking at the latest workshop pix from the 'swimming bath shoot', it seems that the majority are remarkably similar people, both with respect to age, background, interests and influences. However, the slight danger is that the whole 'large format ethos' could/does easily slide into 'old fart' territory....

"........I enjoy creative process of making an image, and LF is in my mind the best tool for this job.

I love the sound of a piece of precision engineering doing its job......"

Yes, I do too. However, I'm still not sure if LF is already obsolete or not. Of course the cameras and their contemplative method are very seductive to people like us but I am aware that time and technology may have passed us by (see my post about the modern place of 4X5) Sir laurence Olivier made a very relevant observation towards the end of his life;....that it's fascinating to open the back of the clock and admire all the wonderful brass cogs and parts,...but that is NOT why the clock is on the mantle shelf,...it's just there to tell us the time! He was talking about the process of acting but his point is very real to photographers and other artists.

At the end of the day, it's the image and it's various qualities that (should) determine the methods of capture.

[Lynne Evans]

Hi All!

Steve's reason of trying to move away from a prescriptive and structured work setup, rings true for me too, but there's more to it than just that. I have worked for years on land mangement and natural sciences, and have seen things as I have been tramping the great outdoors which have filled me with a sense of wonder, awe, I don't know what you would call it. Sights and experiences that are fleeting, but I'd like to grasp or hold onto in some way.

The only way I can attempt this is through photography - not just capturing a view, but trying to embed that feeling within the image. Sometimes I get close, but usually the result isn't quite there. And now the actual act of taking the photograph helps me to hang on to that sensation for just a bit longer. I think the meditative nature of photography, especially LF, helps to draw out the essence of what I am working to capture.

This all sounds a load of touchy-feely-gobbledegook - which isn't me at all!

Lynne

[Richard Kelham]

Why? It's a question I have asked myself several times recently! I often claim, tongue in cheek, that I did photography at art school because I couldn't paint. The last bit's true, but not the first – I was really 'into' the work that was being done in advertising and editorial photography at that time (late '60s) and wanted to be part of it. After 13 years as a working photographer doing just that I no longer wanted to be part of it...I'd fallen deeply out of love with the whole business.

Mid-life crisis time eventually led to me dropping out, moving to the country and becoming a potter (cliche, or what?). I hardly touched a camera for ten years but gradually started again: well someone had to photograph the pots and we were too poor to employ a "real" photographer...In the last few years the photo-bug has bitten again, but I am casting around for a reason to do what I am trying to do. Before it was easy – I did it for the money! Now it's for the pleasure, if stomping over the Pennines with a heavy pack containing a 5x4 outfit and tripod can be considered a pleasure. Before, I worked mostly in the studio with still-life and with models; now I am trying to do landscapes, without being entirely sure that I actually 'get' the point of landscapes.

Yup, definitely flailing a bit here....