I was blessed to spend the Christmas and New Years holidays in Paris. In looking over the photos taken during the course of that trip, it became apparent that, more often than not, my travel photography is focussed more on capturing interesting images or emotional moments than on making a record of the voyage. Put another way, any slideshow presentation of my trip would come across a series of unconnected (but hopefully engaging) images and not as a cohesive series of photos memorializing the passing days of the trip. The questions become: Why then do I take the pictures? For whom? What will I do with them? (By the way, this is true of virtually all my “travel” photography.)
To start to find an answer to these questions, I’ve tried to determine if there is any commonality to the images I’ve chosen to capture and I’ve identified five (5) themes or possible reasons, if you will, of what drew me to take the shot. For some, it was the subject matter itself (in the case of Paris, the architecture or the historical significance ofthe place I was visiting). For some, it was more that I was trying to capture a long past moment in time evoked by my surroundings.
Others it seems were in response to a tug to make a photojournalistic record of the current moment, a beggar or unusual
event for example. Then, too, there are those that echo a theme of isolation . . . something that apparently shows up in my non-travel photography as well. Finally, I’m aware that I took some of the shots with the conscious thought to proffering them as fine art photos.
As to the questions of for whom do I capture these images and what is to be done with them, they remain open. The images I captured of Terezin gave me the impetus to create a cohesive “work” which I intended and hoped would convey to others the emotional awareness of that place, a concentration camp. Since then, I’ve yet to be moved to focus in that manner again. (Heck, look at how long it is between posts on this blog!) However, perhaps now having identified what may be inspiring me a the moment of capture, I can stir those Muses to inspire me to do something worthwhile with them.