The Role of Photography

I have always looked upon photography as having three purposes. Firstly to record history as accurately as possible, unpleasantness and beauty. Secondly as an artistic medium, to evoke feelings in the viewer that transend the mundane present. Thirdly as an enjoyable experience for the photographer, if I didn't enjoy photography I would not do it.
Why do we find it enjoyable, do we crave recognition of our skill? Is it the constant search for "the shot"? Or do we use it in cojuncntion with another passion?, landscape, wildlife, birds, trains, the body beautiful?
Or is it just work, a job, and can such a person be good at it?

I experience photography as science, craft, art, history (documentation) and during the last ten years as meditation within nature. When I was a Kodak Stockhouse retailer in the now ancient seventies I supplied film, paper and chemistry to a local professional forensics photographer who photographed crime scenes, evidence and cadavers in various stages of autopsy. That use of photography opened my eyes to his photographic world. He said that unfortunately, he never had the time or desire to point his camera at "pleasant" subjects.

The role ofthe photogrpaher is simple: make photographs. Anything else is subjective freight the photogrpaher or viewer ( usually both with differing intent ) loads on the resulting photographs.

If you are a photojournalist or documentary photographer your job is to use photography to bear witness to what you see and sometimes how you think about what you are seeing.

if you are an "art" photographer your task is to entertain your patrons.

If you are a commercial photographer (including portrait & wedding photographers ) of any stripe your assignment is to help sell your clients their ideas about themselves, , as well as the possible services and goods the client wants to promote and sell, even if they are relying on the way you see those things.

Initially it was human memory that stored life's experiences. An inaccurate device, much of history was selective. As an example, when early humans painted on cave walls more than likely these were wishes of success in hunting and a hope for that number of prey.

Writing things down is still inaccurate. Filming them is. Photographing them is. They all rely on interpretation and agenda, and the lack of a common experience between the person doing the recording and the person looking at the results. Missing context, differing languages (both written and visual).

And believe me, when it comes to using art to symbolize the expectation of certain results (like a hunt), nothing has changed.

Expectations are strong for a beautiful world to be "captured" on film to the extent that photographers find themselves before dawn or near dark exposing film to capture pleasing lighting.

It is still valid to ask how photography can unchain itself from a mandate to render a beautiful world?

I would suggest that the paradigm you decry is only one you've setup for yourself. If you look at the work of numerous photographers, you will see the the camera used to explore the world rather than rendering it as a utopian place of untouched beauty.

The reasons to photograph are numerous, and personal.

I can only speak for myself, but my reasons are (1) record my life, and the lives of those in my life (2) make pretty and ugly pictures depicting a certain asthetic, message, or evocation of feelings; positive and negative, and (3) create art. And (4), to document happenstances.

I don't know of a more meaningful, important and compelling thing to do then to photograph. And this is true on many levels, and for many reasons.

And Robert, you wrote "the modern world photography is bond by the pictorial standards of painting." IMHO this has not been true since the early 20th century. Google Alfred Steiglitz, straight photography and pictorialism, or rather, it's "death" in photography. Pictorial has been out of vogue since the 1900's.

All photographs capture the exact same thing...they capture what they capture...whether it is Christmas morning in Des Moines or a beautiful model in New York...or a third world death in Iran....it is a capture......We capture what is in front of us...Jim

Every good and interesting photo takes you on a journey. That can be a journey to the place (well, not in a literal sense), a journey into the photographers mind and more often than not a journey into your own mind. That's the whole beauty of it.

The problem is that, especially since the last decade, we've become inundated with mediocre images so it's harder to find them. More of a problem is that mediocrity in many fields seems to have grown into an accepted standard and that's why so many good photographers struggle.

There's a sad analogy. Instead of a fine and tasty meal that takes hours to prepare we've grown accustomed (and come to expect) a microwave meal that's ready for instant consumption. A lot of what we see now is nothing more than microwave photography. Our own fault really, we want it all and we want it now and there has been a growing (and marketed) sense that everyone can do it themselves.