Photography and Emotions
Emotions. Everyone has them, but not many like to express them. Photography can be a way to express the bottled up things you have inside. I use it as a cheaper alternative to therapy. Your photography also allows the viewer to feel something.
I think your work shouldn’t be about what sells. Or even what gets social media interest. I think photography should be about emotion. End. Period. I don’t care about the idea of composition. If a poorly composed image still make my soul feel something, that is a proper photograph. Yes, many of the greatest photographs are perfectly composed, but they still make the inner thoughts bubble to the forefront of your mind. I strongly believe that the concept of photography is not only to show the scene, but to make the audience feel the scene.
Some artist create works of art to show their inner feelings or thoughts on the world around them. Others choose to create their pieces to entice emotions out of the viewer. Personally with my photography, I find myself shooting to my own mood but the viewers feelings are able to be their own. That balance is key to balanced images.
“That balance is key to balanced images.”
To expand on my personal thoughts on my work, I don’t want the viewer to feel my emotions. I want them to feel their own. Looking back on my photographs throughout the years, I can pick out many unintentional themes, patterns, and compositions. Moody, dark, isolated individual focus points, and honestly, I don’t intend them to be similar. They just are. Now, I can think about my feelings and pick it apart, but in the end, my goal is to get you, the viewer, to think for yourself. To feel something for yourself.
Take this image for example. What do you feel while you look at it? Is it a leaf hanging on in the dead of winter? Is it alone in the dark forest? Is it taken to be a optimistic viewpoint for the world or to be a pessimistic viewpoint? I know how I feel. I know how I felt. But that doesn’t matter to me. How does it make you feel? That’s what I care about as a photographer.
