Why Do You Take Photographs?

I curated an exhibition with eight photographic artists from very different parts of the world in which each answers this question accompanied by a display of some of their images. Rather than tell you about the images themselves – how they were made or their potential meaning – each individual simply explains what motivates them to create photographs.

The artists are: Antonio Brice?o (Venezuela), Denis Darzacq (France), Roberto Fernandez Ibanez (Uruguay), Nana Frimpong Oduro (Ghana), Ellen Jantzen (USA), Bohnchang Koo (Republic of Korea), Riitta P?iv?l?inen (Finland), and Michelle Sank (UK).

The exhibition opened recently at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China. It was touch and go given the everchanging Covid restrictions, but thanks to the enormous efforts of the festival team, the exhibition was fully installed and opened on time.

I extend my grateful thanks to the artists, and the staff and volunteers at the PIP festival for making this exhibition possible.

Antonio Brice?o

Venezuela

Ever since I was a child I have felt a powerful attraction to images. As an adult I have been dazzled by the wonders, richness and diversity – human and natural – of the world. I am also mystified by its darkness and shadows. The Universe and its diversity amaze me. Why, as the philosopher might ask,?is there something rather than nothing?

I am essentially a storyteller. It is through these visual narratives that I pursue that ‘something’ which is not nothing. That something is not just seen but perceived. What we perceive as images is not simply a recognition of the world, but its interpretation. Imagination is that faculty of creating images in our mind to better understand the world. Our mental language is a compendium of images.

I take photographs to act as a channel between the amazing world I perceive and the people around me. I seek to become a translator, a bridge.

Denis Darzacq

France

I have been using the language of photography for over thirty-five years. Creating images allows me to better understand the world in which I live: the tensions, hopes, alienations and struggles that underlie all of our actions. I like to compare each photograph to a word and each photographic series to a poem.

I have never found a more metaphorical, more nuanced or more precise medium than photography for ‘speaking’ to others.

Ellen Jantzen

USA

I am interested in states of reality. How is reality experienced; how is it revealed??As I become more aware of the many scientific theories about multiple universes and the conundrums of the space-time continuum, I find it increasingly difficult to define ‘reality’ and a challenge to depict it. I am drawn to this challenge and strive to make visual that which is not visible. I want to look beyond the surface in the hope of revealing something deeper and unexpected.

This is the very reason I was drawn to photography as a creative medium. I find photography – especially digitally-aided photomontage – to be a potent medium through which to effectively communicate the ways I perceive and understand the world.

Photographs were once considered to be ‘truthful’, but we now know there has been photographic manipulation ever since it was invented. Yet, because photographs are ‘believed’, there is a great deal of room to play within the medium’s apparent reality; to create a poetic personal fiction that remains open to interpretation.

Bohnchang Koo

Republic of Korea

There are many ways to express who one is. Some people do it with a pen. I do it with photography. I seek to capture objects, people, and aspects of nature that have stories to tell. What is in front of me stimulates my curiosity. Sometimes it recalls memories; sometimes it raises questions in me about the very meaning of life. What I see is fleeting, but it is captured by the camera. Through my photographs, I hope to communicate these fleeting existential ideas in a more permanent way.

Of course, what I personally experience is just a tiny part of the vast history of the world, like a speck of dust. But I have come to realise that the story of humankind can be understood as the accumulation of the participation of each and every human being, no matter how small that individual participation might be.

Nana Frimpong Oduro

Ghana

I am inspired by the nature of human beings, by our emotional side. I want to communicate my feelings and thoughts about the part of humanity that lies within. I want to express myself through my pictures, but also to express my feelings about other people: to show them I understand how they feel, that they are not alone, they need not feel fear…

Life is like gold, in order to get its meaning, you must dig deep within yourself. I believe everything is within us. You find yourself by digging deep within yourself. It takes serenity and humility. Serenity helps me find myself; when water is calm, we see all that is under the surface.

Riitta P?iv?l?inen

Finland

Photography is not separate from me; it flows mingled within my individual being. We each have our own private ‘undercurrent’, a fundamental understanding of what makes us happy or sad; a knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses. That ‘undercurrent’ never disappears. We can return to it, make it deeper and wider. It gives us hope and security.?

My childhood home was surrounded by forests. Days were filled with play and creativity. I reconnect with myself as a child when I am in Nature, a place of imaginary meetings and unwritten stories. It is through my images in Nature that I share my personal emotions and experiences. While each response will be shaped by the personal history of the individual, I hope that viewers connect with something familiar as our private ‘undercurrents’ meet within the unwritten story of the image.

Roberto Fernández Ibá?ez

Uruguay

Photography reminds me that I am alive. It is my way to search for answers, and to draw me on to new questions.

It is a communication into society.

A way to ask existential questions about humanity, its origins and behaviour; and to express my concern about the environment, climate change and natural resources.

It is a refinement of sight.

A permanent, indissoluble dialogue between light and shadow in which one realises a kind of harmony while becoming silently intertwined within it.

It is an interaction with materials.

I feel very comfortable working in the darkroom with my hands, chemicals and light. It fulfils me.

It is a poetic expression.

Photography has the potential to awaken a wordless, and sometimes ineffable, feeling born in the depths of our innermost thoughts. To write with light is to separate it from darkness.

It is pure joy.

There is an intellectual flash of ecstasy in making and contemplating a successful photograph. It can last a few moments or an entire lifetime.

Michelle Sank

United Kingdom

I take photographs in order to make sense of the world in which I live: to try to make visible to others the narratives and nuances that have meaning for me. I am interested in conveying the extraordinary within the ordinary – a juxtaposition of realities existing within the norm. This reveals itself unexpectedly in both landscape and portraiture. Each new photographic encounter brings a heightened sense of the magic that can so joyfully unfold in these situations.

Photography is my ‘voice’ of personal expression, and a salvation from the alienation that I can often experience. It is the medium through which I am best able to comment on the intricacies of the human condition, the environments we create, and the life force intrinsic to both. These intricacies may become evident in the visualisation of current social issues, debates, and values through in-depth studies of communities, individuals, and places; or they may become evident through quiet, spiritual reflections on the urban and rural environment.