Sheer Absurdity

All of life is indifferent.  It’s all crazy.  And it’s all absurd.  Think of all the things absurd in a day.  A person plans their whole evening around being home in time for a TV show? Why are we so fascinated with TV? Watching other people live dramatic lives?  Because that’s the meaning we assign it.  And we assign everything in our lives meaning?  Get the picture?  But you know why photography is SO amazing?  It captures absurdity, it captures harmony, happiness, sadness, emotion.  Time and life itself stop for a photograph.  That one instant can be caught forever and you see, I see why I live. Why I’m alive.  One beautiful picture can make people stop, stare and understand.

The stillness of a photograph does not limit its purpose. For the image shown is not truly the only image present. The scene that it presents brings to mind not only the action caught in that moment, but it brings to mind every action that led up to it, and forces the viewer to think of what comes next. In doing so it reflects ourselves. For we are not a preconceived beings with set destinies. The scenes that play out before the photograph that is our lives define us, for decisions were made and actions undertaken, however like that photograph, it still leaves space for all the possibilities that may come. The image cast before you, the image of myself, allows for so much more than you may see.

What does a camera mean? A toy? A tool? A trade? For some, a camera is simply a trivial step within the endless menial staircase of their lives, but for others it is an accomplishment. To finally take what you have worked so hard for, to finally hold in your hands the shimmering beacon of hope and proof that every last bit of your effort actually mattered, is something beyond words for those select few. People will tell you photography is a pass time, not a career.  Not a lifestyle.  Not a way to capture the best of people of time of life.  You tell me the meaning of life?  I can’t define it.  Neither can you.  But photography can catch it.   My parents told me photography was nothing, irrelevant and no, they will not buy me a camera.  Nor will they permit me to spend my hard earned money on something so frivolous.  My camera to me is my identity.  I see the world, reality through that lens.  By buying this item I sealed my own life.  That was my choice, and clearly, it works for me.