What makes photography art

In my humble opinion

photo by Unsplash

Photography as an art form is a personal experience. The photographer becomes one with the camera as they explore the composition and decide what the subject is. They decide how to best frame the subject and how to draw attention to it through the correct lighting. 

I can only speak from personal experience as I describe photography as an art form. I became interested in photography as I took more and more pictures on Instagram with my phone looking for the right angles that would best flatter my subjects.

I prayed and asked God for a camera, and lo and behold I received one as a gift one day. I got a Nikon D5600, a great beginner to intermediate camera to help me learn the use of manual techniques to take the best quality photos I can at an early stage. 

I feel it is important for photographers as artists to know their cameras well. So I signed up for a course in Skillshare to better help me understand how to use my camera in manual to best take pictures like the professionals do.

Once I had a better understanding of how my camera works I could have freedom of will to pursue my subjects and capture them in their best light. 

My focus was to take pictures that told meaningful stories so I looked for locations and people that best spoke to me to narrate them in situations that brought them to life through my lens. I started in my hometown of Ocala, Florida and then began to travel to other locations to find places that spoke to me. 

So, after I found that narration, I would study the composition and take some more to see the differing details in each shot and compare them to see what mostly spoke in volumes to me. 

The art became personal as I searched for those stories and saved them on my files and shared them on my Instagram. Thankfully, my followers gave me good feedback and the numbers began to grow.

I don't do photography for the numbers but for the simple joy of making art. It soothes me and relaxes my anxieties. It takes me into a different frame of mind that differs from schoolwork or writing would. Writing is another personal experience that takes so much of my time because I love to do it so much but on occasion, I love to pick up a camera and immerse myself in the images that call out to me to capture their story frame by frame.

As I advance in my photography studies, my courses help me dive deeper into what photography as an artistry means to me and I find inspiration from other great photographers who shares their perspective behind the lens like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pierre Lambert, and Faziel Wescott. 

Something that I noticed is that the three of these photographers on my list are street photographers and they let their lens speak for the captures they make on the street. Street photography can be live and so raw in the moment that you have to make that decision to decide at the decisive moment if that street photo is worthy of your wall. It can be so subjective but the perspective of the photographer of an artist is what makes it so beautiful because the viewers can see the world through the photographers' eyes in every print that they share with the world.