Every time I pick up my camera, I forget the time and everyday life. The camera and the pictures take me to another world. I concentrate on the moment and try to get the best out of that very moment, the conditions, the subject, the location, the light and so on.
Patrik Seiler
You can see other reasons people photograph here.
Austin photographer Kirk Tuck explains the difference between portraiture and other forms of photography:
[O]nly (good and great) portraiture requires the photographer to enter into a relationship, a rapport and a collaboration with the subject. No one walks in cold and, on meeting a portrait subject for the first time, fires off five or six frames, deludes themself that they have a perfect shot, and terminates the session. Unless your only goal it a clinical documentation of the person in front of the camera.
In other words, you have to develop a connection and get to know another human being. That isn’t easy.
Without Hitler, this much is certain, there would have been no Holocaust. His fanatical anti-Semitism was the engine driving genocide. While it may have been difficult to tell sometimes when Hitler was play-acting, the Führer was always deadly serious when he vented his maniacal hatred of Jews.
Ullrich, Volker. Hitler: Downfall (p. 611). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
“With a photograph, the person being photographed allows you to look into their world.”
Peter Turnley is a great photographer. I admire his work. I have one his prints hanging in my home.
When I think of photographs of people, I think of posed versus unposed photographs. I prefer unposed photographs. Having said that, either posed or unposed photographs have the potential to reveal something precious and lasting about humanity.
Turnley accomplishes this way more than most photographers, whether or not his subject poses for the camera. That’s what makes his work special.
Over the years, I have collected books filled with images that have moved me in a lasting way. I am sharing a list of them here. I will update the list over time.
When I arrived in Paris twenty-five years ago, at the age of nineteen, the city I encountered sang to my senses. My heart and mind were immediately stimulated by its light, vibrancy and texture. The French language entered my ears like music, and suddenly communication seemed not merely functional but a celebration of feelings. I quickly grasped that in order to understand Parisians I would have to speak French well; otherwise, I would never be able to get to know the beautiful, mysterious women I was seeing everywhere I looked.
Peter Turnley, An Affair of the Heart, (page 13) 2000
I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.
James Nachtwey
Today, I’m posting another in an occasional series of quotations exploring why people photograph. Is photography important today and if so why?
In a deeply personal way I feel an image is a poem about time, about “staying the moment.” Photography can defeat time. Images can keep the memory of a loved one alive, hold a moment in history for future generations, be a witness to tragedy or joy. They can also change behavior, stimulate understanding and create a sense of urgency that will move people to action. Photography is the universal language that speaks to the heart.
Sarah Leen, former Director of Photography, National Geographic quoted in Time
David Enzel 