Week 4 Writing Assignment

1. What motivates you to make photographs? When the motivation is internal, how do you benefit from your photography? If the motivation is external, what results do you hope for?

     I really love the feeling of looking through the lens and clicking the shutter button. It feels good and that's a big part of it. I've always liked looking through old pictures, and so I want to take a lot so when I'm older, my family, friends and I can have those to look back at. Seeing other photographers' work motivates me as well because I see something that I think is really awesome and I want to figure out how to do it on my own.
     With internal motivation, I am rewarded internally. Even if my photos aren't that great, I still get that great feeling of actually using the camera... for this reason I also love film cameras because I'm not distracted by what each picture looks like after I take it. External motivation gives me a goal... new things to try and learn from. I hope to come out with photographs similar to the ones that motivated me. I have a lot of music magazines and the photos from live concerts always inspire me... I have yet to successfully shoot like those photographers do, but it's something that I hope to achieve.

2. What interests and inspires you as an artist in your broader life? For you, what connections are there between what inspires you and your photography?

     Music is always the first thing that comes to mind when I think of things that inspire me as an artist. Connected to that is the idea of emotions; the complexity of our minds and everything that happens inside us is something I have consistently explored through my art... I think part of what inspires me so much about music is that I often hear songs that accurately convey a feeling that I have such a hard time expressing. Other things include nature, other peoples art, God, etc.
     Other people's art is the most obvious connection because it gives me new ideas and goals to work towards. I also really want to do concert photography, which ties in with music. Nature is all around us just waiting for us to take pictures of it, so thats clear too. God and my emotions and 'etc.' are much more apparent in other media I work with, but I'm sure there are ways, however subtle, that they work their way into my photography.