It is an elementary question but the answers are many and varied as there are people on this planet. Everyone has his own reasons still there has to be something common, otherwise it would not be such an universal phenomenon. Maybe it is our approach to assert a statement that “I was here", "I existed” and the proof is in the pictures. We archive our lives and experiences not all-important for the purpose of sharing them with others but more as memory imprint to help us recall with greater clarity, the experiences of our lives. Our memory is alterable and with each passing moment the details are either lost or changed and what we remember may not actually be what “was”. In short it can be said that pictures helps us to remember. They allow us to go back and experience and remember the feelings we had and can be considered as closest to a true time travel.
In an online survey when I asked people "why do we take photographs?" they came up with these answers: Shoumik said he take photos to capture the beautiful things in this life. Pooja said it depends on people. Some people love beauty and take pictures to capture those beautiful moments while others just take pictures so that they can document and remember it. She said she belongs to the first category. Umesh said he take photos to record his impression on the places he visits. So that when he will travel down the memory lane in near future it will reveal when he had been to a particular place. That's more like autobiographical. Firoze said humility is the essence of true photography. He is a street photographer and live with beggars to document their pain through pictures. He consider photography as a healing science of touch and has passed his knowledge to his grand daughter Marziya Shakir. She is four year old and internationally acclaimed youngest street photographer. He is now in the process of teaching photography to his second grand daughter Nerjis Shakir. She is just eight months old. So, when you will be reading this post and appreciating it she will be learning to shoot pictures. Mohini said she loves photography and she wanted to learn it professionally. She generally take pictures of nature, sky, trees, innocent kids etc. She being a poet relates photographs with her poems and feels the perfect expression of thoughts and emotions by words and pictures. Shashi said he sees poem everywhere. That's why he take pictures so that he won't miss a poem. Yatin said he is a frequent traveler and owns a camera so he wants to show others that he went to a particular place. Nikita said whenever she will like to revisit past, she can take a break from the busy routine, open up the album and reflect on where she had been in the past. That will give a nostalgic feeling and a reason to smile. It will also remind of the time that is ticking away.
I take photographs because it is amusing to look back and apprehend what effort went into the "concoction" of the story.
So, let the journey begin!!!
Ever heard the saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words'?
I believe that these thousand words speaks the story behind every picture. There is a picture somewhere being taken every second, every minute, every hour, every day, and each one of those captures a moment that has a story. The story may be short, or may be long, or may be unknown. The picture might even show its story, or give hints of what it could be, but then there is possibility that what is shown is not really true. However, there were reasons that we have taken these pictures. We either hide them, or show them and sometimes we wait to see what other people may say. Next time you see one than think about the story behind it!!!
