What Photography Means To Me

Photography is used in many different ways. Children become familiar with animals and colors from photos in books. Medical students study surgical photographs in school. Everyday, millions of images are searched for, and shared via social media. New home owners purchase large framed photos from Pottery Barn to decorate their walls. To some, this might be the extent of photography.

To me, just as any other form of art, photography connects humans to one another. Humans can feel great emotion through photographs as well as learn from them. Personally, photography is about the reaction the viewer has to a single photograph. It brings up conversation. Conversation about what is literally in the photo, reflective/ emotional conversation, or political conversation. I don't think Marvin Heiferman could have stated it any more clear in Photography Changes Everything. 

"Photographs don't only show us things, they do things. They engage us optically, neurologically, intellectually, emotionally, viscerally, physically. They demand our scrutiny and interpretation. Photographs seduce and motivate us; they promote ideas, embed values, and shape public opinion." Heiferman, Marvin. Photography Changes Everything. Aperture, 2012.

Photography is unique because we can capture the reality of life through photojournalism, or we can create fine art using creativity and expression. Photos from these two types will always convey a meaning. Knowing the photographers intention or not, someone might create their own, through their experiences from life. Three people can look at the same photo and each view could be completely different from the next. That is the beauty of photography to me, the response, the conversation, the stories to tell through the lens. 

Sunset from the Robert Moses Causeway. (Melissa Mazza 2018)
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