HI! Welcome!
So why a blog? Well ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a writer. There was never a specific genre or type of writing I preferred, I just remember how important it was to be to create and construct a story. It’s kind of funny because as far back as I can remember I was never a big reader. Growing up I always had a hard time concentrating visualizing the story in my head. But, give me a blank piece of paper or 5 minutes of your life and I could draw something for you and then tell you a whole story arc behind that image or character. It was all in my head, and it often got me in trouble. As a kid with an insane imagination I was often just creating stories or depicting scenarios in my head that I’d rather be involved in, rather than what was happening in my reality. But, this is a post about photography so enough exposition and let me introduce you to the most important thing Ive done at this point in my life.
I remember a particular day in early middle school, just another day where I could often find myself drifting off into my imagination, until history class. There was a moment in my class, where we were discussing one of my favorite topics in American history, The Vietnam War. Now I have to say, I believe the art coming out of this period is the best cultural movement we’ve ever had. To me not only is this music the best music to come from American, but it wasn’t till the introduction of the the edgy, gritty, war themed new Photojournalism style, where everything changed. The photojournalist style that came out of these years changed the importance of what a photograph can do, after this period a camera was not only just something you used to capture an image, a camera became as powerful as a weapon. For the first time humans were able to document and show the world the truth and realities of war and society, and it was here where I saw it. John Paul Fino’s famous photo of the Kent State Shootings. The photo is a simple black and white, but I will never forget the face of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming and crying over Jeffery Millers Body. I remember being mesmerized. Not only did this picture capture a perfect moment in time, it was like looking into history, I felt like I was there. It alone was a history lesson and you knew the whole story. You can understand and tell what was happening at that particular moment in time, and no words were needed. It was like I knew everything that was happening, and I knew what happened before and after the shutter open end closed, the story was all right there. something changed in me that day, but it wouldn’t be for many years till I acted up on that feeling.
Jump cut 10+ years later. After already graduated college with a music degree and living a life as a musician, I found myself back in the classroom. It was here in a community college classroom where I was in my American History classroom and I saw the photo again. And yet again the wave of appreciation and admiration came over me. I still couldn’t believe after all this time how much I loved this photo and what it represented not only to the importance of that day, and what was happening during that time, but how important and purposeful it was to me. But I seemed to have a different perspective and understanding as I looked at it. I was sitting in the classroom on my way to become a teacher so I could educate people of the importance of our history, and up until that day I really thought that was the best way to do that. But staring at that photo, I realized what the photo was doing to me, it was telling me the story of that day, of those times. No lecture or lesson the professor could have given me that would have compared to what I learned from this black and white. It was only one frame, but it encapsulated more than all the frames in a movie could. I fully changed that day, and I remember going home and picking up my mothers camera that night. The feeling of holding that cheap Nikon camera in my hand, looking through the viewfinder… changed how I viewed the world forever.
Photography is more than just a photo, its an obligation to capture moments in time. Its a literal and historical time capsule. One photo of a subject can make you feel, experience and appreciate something more than an entire encyclopedia on it. Don’t believe me? Check out any photography book on a subject and compare it to all the lessons you learned about that subject from school. I promise you, you’ll know more about what the American people were like during the late 50’s in Robert Franks “The Americans” than you will in any book written on that period. This is why I love photography, this is why I have chosen to make this passion my purpose in life. I hope you have enjoyed this first blog post, I appreciate you even clicking onto this article whether you came from a social media account or stumbled upon my site. I plan on doing more and more of these articles as some will be attached to social media posts and some will be on specific moments, ideas and esoteric interests. So go ahead, pick up a camera, and before pointing it at something, ask where is the story? Find it, then capture it.
John