Day 49 – Moments

I’ve undertaken this daily challenge and have really enjoyed it.  At a minimum, it forces me to take a picture every day, hold my camera, run through the ‘triangle’ of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO.  Also, determining the ‘creatively correct’ exposure, not just correct exposure.  Do I want moody? Bokeh? Sharpness throughout? B/W? Color? Desatura1ted or vivid? And since I’m just looking for one image, I can slow down and focus on one specific thing and see how the camera responds to the changed variable (yep, the analytical side of me is still deep!).  However, with yesterday being my birthday, my dad got me the above book; “moments” by Hal Buell.  This book has the Pulitzer Prize Winning Photo from every year since 1942 when the Pulitzer was first awarded to recent.  I really want to sit down and read all of the back stories.  Each image provides the camera, film type, Zoom, Shutter and Aperture, which is nice technical information.  But more importantly, as I’ve thumbed through, it is reconnected me with why I love photography so much.  Before I started learning this craft, really studying it (which I’m still learning, there’s a long way to go), I would be awestruck by certain images.  Those moments captured in time that defined that moment, day, era, event, etc.  There are some images that would just draw me in, move me.  And what were the technical aspects of those images?  No idea at the time.  Now, I can understanding light positioning based on catch lights or shadows, wide angle or zoom, processing style (to some extent) and sometimes I forget to let the image wash over me.  Try to feel what the photographer was trying to capture.  Or for me personally, to try to capture that moment vs. try out a technical approach.  The images in this book are raw.  One of the images from 1994 shows a small girl from the Sudan starving, with a vulture nearby waiting for his moment.  I cried looking at that image, the impending death.  The evil and horrors of man that could allow this to happen, and I flood of emotion filled me.  This is why I love photography.  One image.  Evoking emotions.  Stirs the heart.  Electrifies the mind.  This image “touched a global nerve” and was printed by The New York Times and picked up by many more media outlets.  This particular photographer  (Kevin Carter) won the Pulitzer and at 33, had committed suicide.  He left a note behind describing “a lack of money and haunted by unrelenting memories killings, madmen with guns, starving children of corpses and pain.”  This is just one of many stories.  Thanks, dad, for the book!  I would recommend to anyone who loves the art of photography, especially those who love editorial, journalistic, street, slice of life type photography that draws out emotion.