What Photography Means To Me

This is my very first blog post, so I would like to share with you what photography means to me.

In my experience, I have heard many reasons why people approach photography: they pick up their dad’s camera from a dusty closet and start shooting, they are inspired by friends, they approach it as a hobby and then it transforms into a passion (and sometimes even a job), etc.

Well, my photographic experience shares something with them. I was introduced to photography as soon as I started university by a friend, who was in the same course as me. I remember spending entire days talking about aperture, ISO, shutter speed, composition, etc.

Soon this hobby started taking more and more of my time and became a real passion. I realised that whatever tool we use to take pictures, it can be used to make photographs instead. It can be used to freeze a specific moment in time and display it to the entire world through the eyes of the photographer.

I have always liked creating. Unfortunately, I am not a fantastic engineer or a computer programming wizard. But as soon as I realised that I could create something through a camera, my life changed. Finally, I was able to create something new, fresh… mine and to be proud of.

I think that all of us should stop for a moment to remember what is the reason that drew us into photography. Sometimes, as photographers, as in any other job, we might lose touch with our passion and start doing what we must do, what we are paid for, what we are told to do. Going back to the roots of our passion can make us better artists, as it can make us free to create what we are really passionate about.

“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”

Robert Henri

Rome, 2017