Blog Post #8
Why take that photograph ?
Many years ago, when I was a youngster travelling around Europe, I got into a conversation with a chap on the train regarding photography. He saw me take my Zenit-E camera out of my backpack and take pictures from the train. He said “Why do you take that big camera around with you, it must be heavy”? He was right it was heavy but it was my camera, I needed it to record the sights. Now remember this was in the pre-internet days and mobile phones and digital cameras had not been invented yet.
He went on to explain that what he did was rather than photograph The Eiffel Tower, The Vatican, The Parthenon etc., he would just buy postcards of the sights he visited as he went around on his trip. This would be his journal and memory bank of his trip. All the images in his collection of postcards would be perfectly executed, no clutter like the backs of peoples heads etc., and printed beautifully. I thought for a moment that he made a very good point, but wasn’t it a rather soulless exercise? What would people think if I came back off my trip and handed them a bundle of postcards to look through of places they already know well from TV and the media?
I made the argument that my photographs proved that I was actually at the location and that based on his logic, I could go into shops and buy a load of postcards of places I had never been to and claim that I had. He saw my point but was not to be swayed from his postcard gathering strategy.
The conversation took place around 1976 and the fact that I am writing about it in 2021, 45 years later, must mean that I took notice of what he was saying. It has always come back into my mind when visiting new places, challenging what pictures I take and looking at what other people are taking. There must be something other than “I was there” driving people to take their own photographs of famous sites around the world. They never seem to question themselves as to why they are straining themselves to get a better view or what they are going to do with the picture once it is committed to a memory card or film. It will most likely be very ordinary and uninteresting to anyone, or even themselves, if it is taken from the standard tourist angle along with everyone else taking the same shot.
It is true that over time even the most mundane of images can spark memories for the person or group in the photograph and these memories are priceless. But if you take the people out of the picture then its nothing more than a postcard shot, but it’s your postcard shot. Where you can come into your own as a photographer is to move away from the standard postcard type image and start to get a bit creative. Try a different viewpoint, composition, different lens, focus on a detail rather than the full vista. The possibilities are endless. I am sure this will provide more personal satisfaction and will be of more interest to anyone you wish to share the record of your trip with. I would also add that if you do seek out a photo opportunity rather than just walk up and snap, you will become more familiar and interested in the location or situation. It will make you see, rather than just look.
One other thing to consider is that a past study in the Smithsonian Magazine suggests an interesting scenario. They did a study where people who took lots of photos in a museum remembered less about the paintings they photographed than the people who didn’t take photos. The same could probably said for people who spend lots of time taking pictures of events or monuments etc., rather than studying and taking in what is in front of them. They get distracted by staring at an LCD screen showing a miniature version of what they actually came to see. So that is something to think about when you are in this position and decide whether or not to photograph or video events.
So what do I do, I hear you ask? Well I haven’t taken the postcard record type shot for quite a while now unless maybe I am doing a study of a particular location so it becomes part of a set of photos. These days there are plentiful excellent standard images on-line of historic or famous locations and I don’t plan to add to that. I look for a different take on showing say a place or a city by working a street photography style of approach. I would rather my record reflect the people, what I saw in the location and what caught my eye, as opposed to the mundane well trodden path of “must take” shots. So the next time you visit somewhere, don’t be sucked into the tourist trap images, stamp your own approach on your photos and if anyone wants to see what the Vatican looks like, tell them to Google it!
P.S. Another thing that really baffles me are repeated pictures of the same thing on Facebook groups. I am a member of an aviation group and every day the same people post pictures of sometimes the same aircraft departing the local airport. They must have hundreds of photos of the same unremarkable and common place aircraft and yet still feel the need to post them on the group every day. Maybe its a plane-spotter thing, I don’t know, but the need to record this same event every day is beyond me.