Brie, there are so many! We connect with our subjects, with our artwork, with our deeper self, with photographers and other artists from the past. Take NPN, for example. This AMA, for example. Would any of us know one another if it weren’t for photography bringing us all here? Not long ago, I spent an hour or two with Cole Thompson and John Barclay in Death Valley recording a video chat (yet to be posted) on photography and creativity. Would any of us have been in Death Valley if it weren’t for photography? Would we have met each other if it weren’t for photography? Would we have spent an hour together sharing stories and lessons learned if it weren’t for photography? Without connection we are merely (in the words of the poet — I can’t remember who) “naked and afraid in a world I never made.” With art and culture, we have each other.
Perhaps the biggest connection we cultivate through photography is discovering our deeper self. It is hard to be a photographer without asking, Why? Why do I want to photograph? Why do I photograph this particular subject? Why should anyone care about my photographs? Why do I think it is important that I make photographs? Why, why, why. And all such questions are the gateway to thinking about and understanding our deeper self. It is so easy to go through life carried by the waves of habit and insensitive to all that surrounds us. To be an artist is to look more closely, think more deeply, feel more meaningfully. Artists pay attention. They are not numb. They “see the universe in a grain of sand.” Every day. Their artifact is merely a testament to how they lived their lives. Not a bad way to navigate our four score and ten.