Why we take photographs

Bella’s mother arrived today and as of 4 p.m. I am a child-free woman again but still catching my breath. Your responses yesterday to the question why we take photographs charm me entirely. I have read them, saved them, copied them, hooted over them, exulted in them. Yes, I say yes, that's it.

Most of us like to catch, record, or document the passing of time. SooB writes, “I use my photos like a box of jewels I can rifle through, pull one out, and once again be in that moment.” SaraEvans calls it “pinning a thought to the wall with one’s breath.” We take photographs to watch ourselves and our loved ones age, grow, change. We discover, as Grace says, “what wants to be seen, shown, known, shared.”

We enjoy the challenge--trying to compose, expose, capture, express--a passing moment, a slant of light, a shadow, a color, a reflection here and gone, a passage, a liminal moment, a birthday, an anniversary. We catch it, memorialize it, elevate it, and in posting it, we say, “Look!” The sharing, the sense of audience, of someone to hear us say "Look!" --matters to us. Each moment dies to us as it passes, but a photograph keeps it alive a little longer--for each of us, for all of us.

We like how photography wakes us up, makes us pay attention. JanHar says taking a picture makes her “stop and see,” and SaraEvans says: “to see, to see differently, to see again.” We like (no pun intended) the focus (Kimb, GrOver).

Like RaspberryJefe we celebrate humanity, like Leiflife we express our gratitude for the beauty around us. We gather perspective (our own, and other people’s), we revel in the dopamine high (Tlde, Ceridwen), we enjoy photography and find it “traps me in the present for a short while” (Arachne). It keeps our brains active and leaves a trace of our very own view of the world (Nanzy19). We make our mark (D). Because we can.


Of course we love approval. Anyone who says they don’t enjoy approval has to be lying. We like stars, hearts, comments from others involved in this same activity. And we like giving as well as receiving attention. But we don’t want to let the desire for approval run our lives or dictate our art. We love to be admired and to share what we think and see. But more importantly, I think, for each of us, we like to wake up. Be here. Be conscious of what surrounds us. Quick, before it's gone.