I’m having a bit of a creative crisis. I like to take photos, as you can probably tell from my photo page, but it occurs to me that something is missing. I can take pretty pictures — touristy pictures. There’s technique to it, as it turns out, but with a little bit of experimentation, anyone can take a pretty picture.
Now that leaves me wondering… why am I doing this? What do these pictures mean? Why am I taking a photo of a butterfly? Why am I taking a photo of the city skyline? Why am I taking a photo of another effing sunset? All of these pics have been taken a billion times over, and by professional photographers. Why should I take these pictures too?
I could easily walk over to Stanley Park and take lovely pictures of the totem poles, or the cruise ships sailing past, or maybe the cricket game. But I won’t because it’s meaningless. It’s just another pretty picture like the ones that you see in thousands of tourist brochures.
The photos that I’ve been happiest with have related to transition and strange juxtapositions that tell a story. I need to think about this. I’ve got this wacky digicam sitting on my desk and I suddenly don’t know what it’s for.