I am not a photographer. I don't know how to use a DSLR or adjust for good lighting or navigate my way around a darkroom. I don't know much about angles or setting up my shot or dressing my subjects in clothes that catch the light. I post my pictures on social media to share with my friends and family because I hope that they'll simply enjoy looking at them as much as I do.
To me, photography is the most interesting art. While you can edit the photos, set up your subject in a certain pose or setting, or choose a sunny day, it seems to be the most truthful form of art. A portrait of a face in black and white cannot lie. The eyes that shine through, the simple turning corner of a mouth, or the knitting of the brow cannot be changed and says a lot about human nature.
Yet, it takes an insane amount of talent to find the right moment and capture these features. The goal is to make your audience look at your photographs and feel something; it is to have someone walk past your photo, stop, and walk back in order to really look at it.
Social media has changed this. We scroll through hundreds of pictures a day, usually not even processing what they are displaying. Celebrities claim that they are photographers after posting an "artsy" picture on Instagram or photographing friends half naked on beaches. Social media has taken how special of an art photography is and turned it into something most people do not even realize.
I'm not bashing this notion, as I post tons of pictures of my vacations, friends, and interesting places I've visited. Yet, I am not claiming to be an artist, because I can sense that the true talent out there is cringing at all of us pretending. It takes away from the small number of people who can find a face or a street, photograph it, and make you feel something that differs so deeply from what we scroll through on Instagram and Facebook each day.
Art is whatever you want it to be, it can be in dirty street corners, in pieces of string, in anything that you want it to be. So, enjoy photos you see online, seek out photographers, find your favorite style. Just try and take everything with a grain of salt and give credit where credit is due. There are artists working to survive, and then there are millionaires posting one good picture claiming to be of the same caliber. I try and separate the two, to enjoy what I see online, but to appreciate true, hardworking talent.
Remember, "a portrait is not made in the camera, but on either side of it." - Edward Steichen
