Spirit of Photography — STREET SILHOUETTES

♪ Begin the day with a brand new roll, a companion unobtrusive. ♪ Snap that scene, that’s so elusive, and the magic moment makes your morning mood. ♪ Off on your search, with your shutter cocked, there is magic at your fingers. ♪ For the spirit ever lingers, undemanding worries in your happy photo walk. ♬ Invisible lightwaves sparkle with life, film emulsions waiting for its destiny. ♬ Ephemeral moments on silver halide, bearing a gift beyond price, just for me. ♪

♬ Digital sensors making modern photos, can still be full of merit. ♬ Not so automated, it's really just a question of your mastery, yeah, your mastery. ♬ One likes to believe in the freedom of photos. ♪ But frequent status updates and endless content uploads, shatters the illusion of integrity. Yeah. ♬ Invisible lightwaves sparkle with life, film emulsions waiting for its destiny. ♬ Ephemeral moments on silver halide, bearing a gift beyond price, just for me. ♪

If Neil Peart were a photographer, I think he would have said that about contemporary photography. I have no doubt about it. How could he not? Over the last two decades, photography has become a casualty of change. With the rise of digital capture and online communication, what was once a transformative experience is now a common everyday act. Because of that, the respect we formerly had for photography has been replaced by insouciance. In today’s world, no real effort is made for a presentable photo to be taken and shared.

Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH + Ilford Delta 400. Left half of the image has been edited to remove a photobomber. — Ilford Delta 400 @ 50mm Focal Length. Left half of the image has been edited to remove a photobomber.

Consequently, the spirit of photography - long vibrant - has been broken. Essentially, left for dead in this brave new utopia of ones and zeros encoded and decoded for eventual but certain transmission. And in the rubbles of democratization, the world has forgotten the process that we once practiced to create photographs worthy of presenting on paper. It was once a demonstration of preparation, knowledge, experience, skill, and care, all bundled together in a conscious effort to express one’s self through the analog medium of uncertainty.

Of course, the risk of uncertainty has been remedied. Now, we can see the photo in advance before it is taken. But how blind we have become, now that we can see with certainty. We no longer imagine the photo before it is taken because we already see it. As a result, our photos lose something of ourselves. That distinctive quality of personal involvement, commitment, and technique we wholly impart, when transforming imagination into a presentable photograph, is supplanted by indifferent automation typical of point-and-shoot replication.

Without imagination in the photo taking effort, we look for cues from digital displays. We accept its replication of reality given its accuracy. In doing so, that distinctive quality of ourselves is left out, given that it is no longer required to minimize uncertainty. Not surprisingly, the photos that we take invariably turn out manufactured in presentation. There is nothing more to that photo than the photo itself - no matter how perfect it seems. In the end, photos like these are made to please others, since their inception never came from inside one’s self.

Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH + Ilford Delta 400. A wad of wet tissue paper on the bumper under the left headlamps was edited out. I didn’t see it at the time of shooting. Hazard of not wearing corrective lenses when taking photos. — Ilford Delta 400 @ 50mm Focal Length. A wad of wet tissue paper on the bumper under the left headlamps was edited out. I didn’t see it at the time of shooting. Hazard of not wearing corrective lenses when taking photos.

Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH + Ilford Delta 400 — Ilford Delta 400 @ 50mm Focal Length

That said, such photos were never made to please one’s self - at least not directly. The intent of such perfectly captured photos is to be shared and liked by others. And in turn, these manufactured photos indirectly please the photographer - because it pleases others first. I mean, how very absurd? The intent of any photo must first be taken for one’s self. And if it is done for the sake of others - like to be seen on a social media post - it will be bereft of integrity. That desperate need for outside approval invariably negates any sense of individuality.

Needless to say, social media never wanted our individuality. Rather, it demands conformity from us. In return, it allows us the opportunity to be seen. To go viral! To become a meme! Or dare I say, rise and become a non-fungible token! How very intoxicating! And to reach such an accolade, all one really needs to do is to be liked, be recognized, or be popular. I mean, how difficult could that be? It is just a simple matter of trying and trying and trying by uploading more and more photos. After all, chance favors persistence and repetitiveness.

So it goes without saying that quantity, and not quality, is what contemporary photographers strive to achieve. As such, the world is inundated with a constant unending torrent of perfectly captured photos - all resembling the next perfectly captured photo. With so much perfection going around social media feeds, it is only natural for us to get onto the bandwagon and keep the cycle of new content upload going and going. However, there is only so many quality photos for any one photographer to capture and share. No one can be that prolific.

Ilford Delta 400 @ 50mm Focal Length + Fill Flash

It is no wonder our social media feeds abounds with perfect photos. So perfect are these photos that one can scarcely tell any of them apart. By comparison, integrity is too much of a luxury to seek, if one is determined to mass produce content uploads. Of course, if one were to approach photography with insouciance and rely on the certainty of point-and-shoot replication, the trouble of manufacturing mass quantities to upload would be greatly simplified. There would be no imagination involved, resulting in a complete lost of self in the photos.

And so, digital capture abets online sharing. In turn, online sharing abets digital capture. This endless cycle of producing and publishing becomes a malignant obsession - like an addiction. Invariably, we lose ourselves in this process. For that reason, our photos also lose any sense of identity too. Nothing of us is imparted onto our photos - except for that desperate cry for attention. That is why social media photos - as perfect as they look - are only skin deep in substance. They are all perfect on the surface, but empty in its inception. Truly lifeless.

We might as well classify these social media uploads as zombie photos. Like zombies, they are all without life. And like zombies, they keep on coming and coming without end. Delete one from your social media feed, and another one takes its place. So, do not let their perfection fool you. Once their plastic flawlessness takes a bite of your insecurity, you will turn into one of them and fall hopelessly into their fold. You see, that is the power of social media platforms. The ease of online publishing offered by them traps us to do their monstrous bidding.

How I long for a time when photographers took photos from the heart and not from insecurity. Alas, there was a time when we took photos for ourselves. A time before social media. And when we took our photos, we took it with personal involvement, commitment, and technique in order to minimize uncertainty in capture. Each of the photos we took were important to us, given a finite number of frames per roll. A such, each photo we took demonstrated preparation, knowledge, experience, skill, and care. It was truly a transformative experience.

We breathed into every photo a part of our own essence - our identity, our curiosity, our voice. In doing so, we made each photo more than its many parts. In that way, we truly understood that photography was more than just a common everyday act. For us, photography was an immersive undertaking that required us to summon our true selves to imagine the photo before we took it. And once that was acquired, we held our breath, took a leap of faith, and clicked the shutter to capture what we imagined. Literally, an eternity in a matter of seconds.

But, that was a long time ago. Today, the spirit of photography is all but left for dead. In its wake, photography is nothing more than a means to an end. In other words, photography is all about getting likes. I mean, it is not even about the photo itself. Hence, it is no wonder that no one cares enough to keep the spirit of photography alive anymore. But, that does not mean we cannot do our part to keep it alive. In my own little way, I still breath that spirit onto every photo I take because my photos are intended just for me. And really, that is the point!

Ilford Delta 400 @ 50mm Focal Length. I edited out a photobomber on the left side of the photo.

Thing is, if you always try to please everyone with you photos, you will only end up photographing what others like. However, people have differences in their liking, so you cannot possibly please everyone. For that reason, any photo trying to please everyone will always come short in potential. It will look safe and will look like every other perfect photo floating around social media.

That said, getting likes for you photos does feel intoxicating. But if you continue down this path of shooting for likes - just to feel good - you will never grow and find yourself as a photographer. Only when you take chances and take photos for yourself would others come to respect your work. That is what the spirit of photography is really all about - self discovery.

Imagine what our world will be like if Vincent van Gogh painted for likes or if Rush wrote songs for likes?

Thank you Kamila for accompanying me on my photowalk. And yes, I am still in quarantine 😖 I cannot believe I posted this blog entry. Mind you, I had to write something to justify my lyrics. #SpiritOfRadio. #Rush

♬♪🎸♬♪♬♪♬♪♬♪🥁♬♪♬♪♬♪♬🎸♪♬♪♬♪♬♪♬♪📻

♬ For the words of the profits were written on our Instagram feeds. Twitter tweets. And echoes with a pitch from Facebook. ♬

Disclaimer

Aug 16 Spirit of Photography

Disclaimer

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Sep 17 Rethinking Leica's 28mm Lenses

Aug 8 The 35mm Focal Length