My latest collection
By Christopher Paquette
18 June 2008
For as long as I have been using a camera, I have described the act of photography as "Taking a picture", just like millions of other photographers. We all use this term without giving it much thought. Recently I have been thinking quite a bit about this common phrase and it has begun to bother me. "Taking" is too closely tied to the aggressive side of photography, as are "Capture" and "Shooting". I am constantly aware of the obtrusive nature of my camera, especially while I am photographing people.
Ansel Adams preferred to say "Making a photograph" to describe his art, and I have heard other contemporary photographers use this term. I have a problem with this because I don't believe I "make" anything when I press the shutter button of a modern day digital camera. The camera makes the image, and my sophisticated computer software does the rest.
So I have recently settled on "Collect" to describe my photography work. I collect images of people and places and things. I collect groups of similar images and themes, and one of my most recent collections are images of horizons. I didn't take these horizons. They are all still where I found them. Obviously, I didn't make these horizons either. They all existed long before I found them. I simply find them interesting enough to collect.
1 Response
-
On 20 December 2008 Sarah Dudley gave props:
This is a fabulous collection!
