I would like to become a successful photographer in the later life because I am interested in portraying different lives of people doing various things. If I am to become a photographer, I want to portray the current traditions and culture of the 21st century so that the future generation will know what kind of life people from this era lived. I will also use my camera to illustrate the cancer of the society; the corruption, the suffering, and many more illnesses of the society to help the government know which and where they should focus first. For instance, in the United States alone, the effect of colonialism on the Native American Indian culture diminished the sacredness of their religion especially with the growing ‘cultural appropriation’ on the internet and in other forms of media. I want to be able to showcase the beauty of their culture by capturing the importance of those objects to their identity. As a photographer, I also wanted to expose the effects of the humans’ continuous exploits over the flora and fauna of the Earth; I also want to exhibit the beauty of the animals’ lives in their natural habitat. Through the lens of my camera, I will use the pictures I took to make a change and influence the humanity to make a step forward in order to preserve the beauty of the Earth and its natural resources for the sake of the future generations.
My overall theme for most of the pictures that I will make later on will deal more on the important aspects of light in making the scenery appealing to the audience. In my pictures, I want to showcase how light affects the human life in their daily activities. For instance, the daily tasks assigned to us. I want to portray a world where everyone benefits from the light. Aside from this, appropriate lighting is also important in establishing the moods and the time of the picture. Dimmer to yellowish lights mimic the presence of the candles in the surroundings since most of the people from the past used the candles as their method of illuminating their homes and streets. My inspiration to create photographs that emotionally move people comes from two different artists namely: Eugene Atget from France and Suzuki Shinichi of Japan. These photographers lived in era where photography was once a thriving new industry and classified as one of the ‘high arts.’ Although their photographs were daguerreotypes, the common thing that they emphasized was the life of the people in their periods. Take a look on Atget’s Street Pavers (c. 1899-1900; see fig. 1), this old photograph shows men in felt hats, trousers, and shirt working tirelessly in fixing broken street pavements. On the left side, a small boy, probably the age of five or seven is seen enjoying himself playing with rubble of cement. The next photo titled A Jinrikisha Carrying a Foreign Sailor (c.1899; see fig. 2) was one of the few preserved relics of Japan during the Meiji period. In the past, jinrikisha or rickshaw was one of the preferred transportations of the Japanese and the foreigners because it is cheap and it symbolizes the Japanese identity to the world. A description from the Nagasaki University Library Collection indicates that the foreigner took the photo to “commemorate” his travel to Yokohama, Japan. From these photos, I learned to see how photography can be used to document the lives of the ordinary people and with the help of these pictures, the society can take more time to learn about its past and tell the legacy of their ancestors to the future generations.
WORKS CITED
Atget, Eugene. Street Pavers. c. 1899-1900. Digital Image. Web. Only Old Photography Tumblr.com. 18 Mar. 2016.
Suzuki, Shinichi. A Jinrikisha Carrying a Foreign Sailor. c.1899. Digital Image. Web. Nagasaki University Library Collection. 18 Mar. 2016.
