Why do people take photographs?

Photography constantly evolves with the increasing importance of images created with the benefits of the improving capabilities and quality of cameras; particularly with the ownership of mobiles – with selfies being a popular form of personal photography letting people capture a moment in time, to retain a visual memory and share it with others, with all that entails.

Most of us have a good visual awareness of what happens around us, with some trained to see and retain those images. But our receptiveness to visual stimulation also leaves us open to the activities of advertising and the saturation that inflicts. This makes it more difficult for us to select, distinguish and appreciate what we see. Photography is one way of focussing our view on something – though it as not as good in this respect as the discipline and concentration required for drawing or painting. These photographs, and those on subsequent pages, are an indication of the way I see things.

I enjoy looking around me and take photos both to record what I see – in a sense, a visual diary – as well as that which relates to my professional training and interests.

The images here were selected from those taken over a period of many years, the oldest from over fifty years ago. They are generally representative of the photographs I take, though I have more architectural photographs than are represented here; I don’t take enough photographs of people. Essentially, these are ‘snaps’ rather than considered images.

The photographs were taken on Nikon SLR bodies and lenses or Nikon, Canon and Sony digital cameras. However, the camera is not the essential part of taking photographs; the eye and selection are more important.

But photography is changing, with images now often severely changed with the availability of software and Artificial Intelligence. No longer can we really trust what is presented to us.

Some of the photographs taken on the SLRs were originally Kodachrome II transparencies and now, years later, have been scanned and small digital images produced. Generally I have preferred to take transparencies rather than prints for the quality of the stock, but the scanned images tend to have heavy contrast with loss of detail. The rest of the photos were taken on the digital cameras.

And I don’t take selfies.