Do you see it? Right in front of us? The best sunset of your life, in anyone’s life is happening and we have all the right gear, the right knowledge to take not only the best sunset image ever taken but one that will be known and adored worldwide. So why are we standing here, just looking at it, our dutiful extension of our eyes with better memory there and waiting for us to click the button that fires the shutter?
Because sometimes the moment deserves more than a tangible immortalisation. More than anyone could ever do justice in a collection of pixels on a screen or ink on a canvas.
It deserves to be witnessed.
As a photographer who is always aiming to better herself, I often get asked why I am the only one with a massive camera and lens slung over me standing or sitting there without smashing that shutter. I must be a madwoman to let this moment just pass on by right? Of course not, I am mad as a hatter but in this case I know exactly why I am choosing this seemingly bizarre choice.
See, it really is somewhat of a superpower that the photographer breed of human possesses - they freeze time and that moment lasts for a foreseeable forever. That is the intention. It is crucial to us as a collective group of beings to recall the times we cannot easily without prompting. So we take a photo. I personally love and respect the power I have to do that and do it well.
When I choose not to is also a tangent of that love and respect. There are many reasons not to take the photo. Because it’s been done to death both well and poorly is a popular one. Others may be more personal. Simply for me it comes down to the feeling of the moment. Being fully 100% present. A moment may be the least important or most important of one’s life. As such it is my responsibility as a storyteller and record keeper of these moments that I make sure I know when they need to be immortal in a photograph or if they need my full, undivided and full senses attention. The camera and lenses are absolutely an extension of my eyes, mind and soul but that is not to be mistaken for the presence of them.
I no longer understand why you could pay a large amount of money for an experience and only come away from it with 1000+ photos. Good or bad, that is irrelevant here. Even when the express purpose is to find things to be photographed. A trip I just returned from to Tasmania is one of those where the goal was to take photos and develop as photographers. Yet the most powerful memories I have from that trip, including both feeling the most peaceful I have in a long time in a square in Hobart and being absolutely moved by someone communicating their essence through a shonky old piano on an island are the most precious to me. Those exact moments, there are no corresponding images to those. There might be ones either side but to be present is to be immobilised by that moment. In short, I know that to have picked up the camera while feeling those would have been a disservice to myself and anyone who saw the photos later. It simply wouldn’t be my best work. I wasn’t thinking about the photograph or being in the moment. Trying to do both enough to justify picking up the camera just isn’t possible.
That kind of disservice to yourself is too high a price to pay to lose that moment by invading it with the sound of the shutter and the burning of light to the sensor. To your art's audience? It will never move them the way it moved you by being there. It is literally a “you had to be there” moment. Which, you know, sucks for everyone else but people keep telling me to have me time or be selfish or look after myself so that would be my easiest way of saying “well yeah, you had to be there”.
Concerts are another thing and I have absolutely done this before. You turn up, you’ve spent money, you wait in line after buying yourself some awesome merch, wait impatiently for that line to move until you find your seat in arena and pull out your phone or whatever device they have let you have. I don’t even remember what songs were played in the photos I took except for maybe that Taylor Swift concert where I nailed it in like 10 shots and none of the others were really much to write home about on my powerpix something or other. I only remember what song it was because of the outfit having a connection to the song’s music video. Without that prior knowledge. Zip. Nada. I certainly have some great shots from a Lady Antebellum concert I went to but if they are singing or playing instruments I don’t remember them. I wasn’t present.
Every other gig… Same deal. If I have taken photos I don’t really remember the music properly. These days, I am sure to act more like the pro’s and pick maybe a couple of my less favourite songs if I really do want to take the photos or I put the camera down and let the show move me.
Bottom line there are sacrifices to be made when you choose to take a photograph and it is important to know that you are making those sacrifices so that when you realise you want to be present you really truly are. Never apologise for that and never feel the need to explain why you and your big fancy gear are living the moment. Sometimes that moment is worth living more than it is worth being immortal.
- Courtney