why?

As I have schlepped my camera around – in Africa, central Europe, Mexico, Missouri, Kansas, my own neighborhood – I have discovered over and over again the sheer joy of making pictures. Each day I get to photograph, I feel enormously blessed, both because of the opportunity to make pictures and the opportunity to meet fascinating people along the way. Sometimes I wonder if non-photographers understand what motivates and drives picture-makers. I love this passage from Robert Adams’ book “Why People Photograph” written in 1994:

“Why is photography, like the other arts, a kind of intoxication? And a quieter pleasure, too, so that occasionally photographers discover tears in their eyes for the joy of seeing. I think it is because they’ve known a miracle. They’ve been given what they did not earn, and as is the way with unexpected gifts, the surprise carries an emotional blessing. When photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures. Nobody does. Each photograph that works is a revelation to its supposed creator. Yes, photographers do position themselves to take advantage of good fortune, sensing for instance when to stop the car and walk, but this is only the beginning. As William Stafford wrote, calculation gets you just so far – ‘Smart is okay, but lucky is better.’ Days of searching can go by without any need to reload film holders, and then abruptly, sometimes back in their own yards, photographers use up every sheet.”

The scariest reoccurring dream I have is the one in which I can't see anymore.