I rubbed shoulders with a group of amazing photographers a few weeks back.  The annual Hair of the Dog by the AIPP in Queensland is a must do conference for me each year.  It is at the beginning of the year (tick 1) so it kick starts me for the year, it is always packed with amazing speakers/workshops (tick 2) and I come away with copious notes from the day to revisit at other times in the year to keep me on track.  One such speaker was Vicki Bell, a very talented photographer from Victoria and one of the biggest things I drew from her presentation was the need for a philosophy behind your work.  I 100% agree with what she said, and although I have always felt I understood my own philosophy and what I want to portray in my work, putting it into words was a completely different story.  So I have made that my challenge, to write it down and put it out there for the world to see.  I am a firm believer in evolvement.  As we evolve our ideals and our goals do also; benefit of experience I suppose!  I’m sure that what I say now will be completely different to what I will say in 5 years time, so this will be a great test to see how it changes and how I have evolved as a photographer.

I believe good photography has many elements.  Individually, these create a nice image; however together make an image that is compelling, entrancing and provoking.  I believe my photography is primarily about 2 things – connection and light.  These things are interrelated and dependent upon each other.  That connection can exist between the subjects, between the subject and the photographer, or between the subject and their environment.  Without the right light, the connection is lost to the viewer.

The photographer’s job is to understand the subject on such a level they understand how to bring out the best in the subject and capture it on film/pixels.  For example a landscape photographer takes the time to understand a location.  Which elements he/she would like to bring out and which time of day will provide the best light to do so.  The same can be said for portraiture.  Being a portraiture photographer, my aim is to utilise key photographic elements to bring out the best in people; to give them their moment, captured in time in a creative and visually enticing way.  It is also to build a relationship with my subjects that allows me to capture this glimpse of their life and to create an image which reflects them as a person. 

However, good photography doesn’t end there.  For that moment captured in time, we need to determine what level of importance to place on it in our lives.  Do we file it away on a hard drive for years down the track?  Place it on a CD to be used as a coaster once it decides it magically cannot be read?  Or, amazingly in this day of digital, we can lovingly prepare and print an image on an archival medium that will live on long after we have left in this world.  We can hang this print in a place we walk by every day in our homes.  We can marvel at the age of our children, at the colour of our hair and of the lack of wrinkles on our faces.  And we can enjoy the emotional connection with a past moment, whether it was 1 month ago, 1 year ago or 15 years ago.  

We can proudly say, that was us.

So, a little more than a philosophy statement.  But hopefully it gives you an understanding of what my images mean, to me and to the person in front of the lens, and gives you a little insight into why I do what I do.

Thank you Vicki for being so thought provoking.  It was an interesting process and one I will no doubt do again as my photography journey continues.