Howard Moo Young, Contributor
Contented
THE WORLD has need of a universal language, and photographs can speak to everyone. Communicating by the spoken word or the written word can be understood, but an unfamiliar language is a barrier. This can never be said of a photograph. Even primitive people and illiterate individuals are fascinated by a picture, even though everything in the image might be different to anything they have ever seen before.
More advances have occurred in photography in the past 30 years than in the previous century. Since the first camera was invented in the early 1800s, it has become a tool with many uses in communications, in business and industry, in government, in education, in the home and as an art form. And yet, with the constant improvements in camera design, better lenses, films, new techniques, and even the introduction of digital camera, we all fail to realise that often, a bagful of personal decisions are made before the shutter is pressed. Many photographers have not yet learned the most important aspect of photography 'The Art of Seeing'.
War, peace, hate, poverty, wealth, happiness ... nothing gives us a better view of the human condition than a camera. The photographer's eye can record with equal concern, the deep concentration of Asafa Powell on his way to a new world record and the warm embrace of proud parents on his arrival at the Norman Manley Airport, while at the same time record the gruesome discovery of the body of a young girl who was raped and murdered in a cane field.
Many photographers have captured the exquisite beauty of our island, the savagery, fear and squalor of our poverty-stricken slums, the common denominator being the camera. There is no reason why photojournalists cannot utilise their creative talents when recording any moment in daily life or shooting an assignment, from a simple head shot to the spectacular breaking news stories.
Some of our more experienced and award-winning photographers let their emotions and their feelings shine through their pictures. They are either motivated by a social conscience a desire to expose evil, injustice, and inequality with their cameras, and who find it impossible not to be involved in the subjects they are photographing; in a slum they might find beauty and in a more affluent area, loneliness.
Photojournalism has told us more about what is happening in the world in human terms than any words can describe. The most photographed war in history was Vietnam, which claimed the lives of a number of photographers; but their images brought home in graphic detail, the horror and futility of war. In recent years, Afghanistan, Desert Storm and now Iraq have added to the list many more deaths of men and women behind the camera, yet their photographs live on to remind us of the carnage of suicide bombers.
Over the years, magazines such as Life and Time have given the world thousands of images that will speak to future generations. Today, National Geographic continues to fascinate us with excellent photographs and journalism. Even our own Jamaican photographers have contributed to international publications.
As photographers, we don't have to be attached to a newspaper or other publications to create images that tell a story. Whenever I conduct a photography workshop, I always encourage those attending to give themselves assignments as photojournalists, editors and wherever possible, writers, at least once a month.
And what better place to start but in your own backyard, your community, wherever you live. Your face is a familiar one, you know most of the people in the area, you have the contacts and you can go where I can't go.
With so many situations and events happening around us, both negative and positive, it is up to the photographers to make statements of their choice.
As a science, photography involves understanding the technical and mechanical operation of the camera as well as films and chemistry used, the purists will agree. Today the same camera does literally everything for you - it gives you great exposure even with flash, it focuses, chooses the right speed and aperture, it even stabilises the lens without a tripod, advances the film, allows you to get double and triple exposures, but there are two things that it won't do for you - compose the picture and tell you when to press the shutter to get the image you really want.
This is what many of us fail to grasp. It means that as photographers, we have to be more aware of everything in our line of sight - lighting conditions, contrasting patterns, different angles (wide or close-up), verticals and horizontals, backgrounds, foregrounds and framing. We must approach each assignment imagination, perception and attitude.
There is no substitute for a photograph, the true interpreter and visual recorder of our civilisation.
