Many people take photos; fathers of their sons, boyfriends of girlfriends, journalists of riots and wars, studio photographers of newborn babies smirking, and artists of dry stone walls, still mists on grey mornings, and mad swerves of grafitti colour on city walls. All kinds of images by and including all kinds of things and people. Is there a motive behind all of this (practically similar) activity? Elementally – why do we do it?
An initial worry is that this was something too obvious to explain or too mysterious to explain. Mysterious things are better left unexplained, and seemingly obvious things often must be explained. It would seem at first blush that people take photos for obvious reasons. It could be to record an event or to decorate a wall. But that cold analysis does not explain why some people, many people, derive such an addictive and constant joy from the act of photographing. There must be a deeper reason.
Here is a theory to consider. Photographing is an emotional dialogue. And as such, it is complicated by all of those mechanisms we use to be coy and to cope with the way we feel – diversion, protection, embarrassment, intimacy, honesty. We take photographs because it is a way we can show affection in a safe and protected way. Every time we take a photo, we are motivated by an impulse of affection for the thing in front of the lens. This could be anything – flowers or faces. It could be affection for an idea – what the image represents or the story it tells and why it should be told. Or it could be affection for a pattern, colour or most often a person. And in taking that photo, it’s possible to make those fleeting and glorious aspects of things we love last a little longer – captured in a photograph and kept to enjoy. And all the while – we can do this blatant act of swooning affection safe behind the glassy protective sphere of a lens and know that we can do so without ever having to vocalise those difficult and choking sentiments of affection. It is fundamentally because of a pervasive fear that the best and most beautiful things don’t last long or forever – and by photographing them – we show some affection for them and save them from disappearance.
