How would you define a "picture"
I define it as a part of me, a part of my memory, an emotion, all captured to last. I'm not going to touch too much on the technical aspecs of photography (thought i'm tempted to), i shall save that for another day.
looking back at my pictures, the candid ones are the most appealing to me. There is nothing wrong with posed pictures, they are fun, everyone looks good and everything is perfect and that is the problem. it is too perfect, so far from natural, it does not express the true emotion a person is actually feeling at that moment of time.
A picture, either candid, blurred, off focused, out of frame, "un-glam" or what so ever, may it be intentional or not, it exudes the most emotion, character, warmth... they tell a story. Those crooked smile, awkward posture, wrinkled shirt and even wash-out tired faces, not only do they precisely portray what one is feeling or doing at that exact point of time, it also lets you figure out what the person did before and probably foresee what is going to happen next. It is possible for just one picture to jolt your memory and recall the event for that day, the gossips you shared, those complains you whine about, those jokes you found lame, those stories you shared about that happened further back in the past.
I'm cleaning out and deleting unwanted pictures in my external hard disk and with every view of those past pictures, my eyes weld up and my heart grows heavy. i see change, i see people grow, personalities deviates, innocence fades.
I see happy pictures and wondered how it came and went so easily. When i look back at my family pictures, i giggled secretly and cried and thought of things i shouldn't be thinking... when the time comes, these pictures will remind me of them.
When i take pictures of people, I get more than just an image. I get to discover the person. Know things I never did. Behaviour, character, attitude, personality, comfort-zone. It's all about observation and analyzing. Sometimes, your
impression might change when you 'discovered' something you have overlooked all these years, at that point of time. But then again, that's subjective to every individual.
When I take a picture and share it, I hope that people could feel what I feel. Not just laugh, or be amazed by the picture for its visual aspects (composition/colours/subject/etc) but also feel heavy, sad or even cry (appropriately of course).
I want my picture to tell a story, evoke emotions, gets you thinking... doesn't it remind you of the time you were in primary school during oral examination where you were given a picture and you were given time to talk about it?
I feel that there is more than just a pretty picture. There's life. I want to bring life into my pictures. The list of things to say about a picture is endless and sometimes hard to explain, but currently, I think i've said enough.
And that's how i define a picture~
"Good photographers take great pictures, great photographers create images."
source - unidentified website
