When I set up this blog I clearly stated that it would be about my woodturning and my photography, which is the one thing that hasn't featured so far. I'm going to start putting that right. Right here, right now.
I have been taking photos for more years than I really care to think about and over that time I have taken thousands of them. Sadly, many of my old film and print pictures have been lost over successive house moves and decluttering days, but the digital revolution has made it much easier for all of us to save our memories and moments, either on physical media like usb sticks and CD's, or latterly in the cloud. Personally, I am suspicious of cloud storage; how safe is it, does it last forever, and can it be hacked? This is probably why I have shelves full of CD's. Yes, they do take up space, but they are physical, I know where they are at all times and they can't be hacked, which is something Ansel Adams never had to worry about! I was also reading the other day that cloud storage isn't particularly green. The data centres that hold all our digital ephemera will, in any 24-hour period, each use as much electricity as a small town - say the size of Uttoxeter - as much to run the cooling and ventilation systems as the servers themselves. I think I need more shelves.
I was was thinking about why we use the term 'take a photo', rather than make a photo. Technically, I suppose we do still 'take' pictures; we are capturing a scene, a moment in time, and saving it for later interpretation. That is still true of course. I would like to suggest, though, that in this digital era we are more likely to make a photo than take one. With technology at our fingertips it is so much easier to create an image now than it ever was in the dark days of the dark room, and that in itself brings its own threats and possibilities. We might even question why we need a camera at all, either in the traditional meaning of the word or in terms of the excellent cameras that most phones now have. Consider, too, that digital image manipulation is possible within the phone, let alone the applications on a computer. Again, being a bit 'old skool' about this, I prefer a desktop and a 26 inch screen!
Also, to take something implies that we are removing it. Some cultures believed that to have their photo taken was to have their spirit stolen. Similarly, Spiritualists believed that photography was a window into the soul and, further, to open that window was to allow demons into the soul. Whether in the age of digital culture and the selfie that still applies I couldn't say. I'll leave that one for the anthropologists.
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