I love the power of photography and what the picture can really tell. You can appreciate a whole story from just looking at a photograph and without anyone explaining it. This is the art and beauty that I strive for in my work; to make someone feel a certain pull or emotion when they are presented with that element. The picture that you see now has a key meaning to me and a message I’d like to share with you all. When setting up for this shot, I crouched down in my small place in the world and noticed that I was surrounded by something we don’t always take time to recognize. That is the serenity of nature as well as being welcomed by the chirps of the birds and the vibrant landscape. You can see me walking along side my dog and my companion, Lucy. Although there may be a blissful feeling at first… it’s also a terrifying feeling.

As you look beyond Lucy and I, you notice a landscape mimicking the characteristics of chaos. A fire that is blazing across the world that we live in. A first glimpse of this picture and you notice a guy and a dog walking to their leisure. But if taking the time to really examine what’s going on, you notice an evil present. What I’m trying to get at is that we as human beings tend to take that first glimpse and not examine what’s in front of us. Instead we need to examine things of what is really going on. In the society we live in, we are often shielded by the chaos and violence of this world and kept up in our little own suburb communities and living the life that we are fortunate to have but choose not to see the oppression and scrutiny that others face. Don’t just take that first glimpse as if it means nothing. Take the dare to glance a second time and expose yourself to what world we are actually living in.

But don’t let me just tell you what this picture means to me. You as an individual have the ability to interpret this picture and incorporate a message that’s meaningful to you and how it applies to your own life. That’s the amazing power of photography. Being able to express a multitude of ideas through just one single photograph. When I see other photos being evaluated, the reader is often given a straight forward interpretation on how the photo should analyzed through the authors eyes. However, I don’t believe this is the right way to go about examining such a thing. What it should be is the ability for the audience to interpret their own message and their own way of looking at a piece instead of someone dictating what is right from wrong. A photograph isn’t meant to have just one meaning to it. A proliferation of ideas is meant to be sparked and discussed instead of restricting the photo to a one and only meaning. This is my philosophy in terms how we should go about analyzing photographs, thus allowing for the beauty of photography to live on.