In fact, after pouring through my expanding library of pictures, I could not find one photo of mine that had a decidedly sad or melancholy feel. No matter what the picture is, I always seem to find the laughter and hope in the scene, no matter how minute. It was a startling realization for me.
I think everyone can unconsciously understand (or at least appreciate) the relationship between art and emotion. It's the reason "Reunion Tour" by the Weakerthans is the perfect winter soundtrack. It's the reason Monet prints decorate an untold number of livingrooms. It's the reason So You Think You Can Dance is the best show on television once The Office goes into summer reruns.
Obviously art will affect emotion, but I hadn't really experienced how emotion affects art (by first affecting the artist). This realization that I haven't yet taken sad pictures really makes perfect sense once I've thought about it. Twenty-Five, in addition to being a year of change, has been one of the best years of my life, and my photographic career has coincided perfectly with this period. In terms of job satisfaction, personal growth, financial stability and emotional balance, Twenty-Five is clearly on top. It makes perfect sense that as I document the world around me, that joy would be infused into my pictures.But...can an artist dissociate themselves from their work? Can I take a sad picture? HAVE I taken a sad picture and just not known it?
The second realization I've had recently is that others will pick things out of my pictures that I would have never considered. And that, I think, is what I love so much about my new hobby. Once I can let go of the pictures I've taken and allow others to critique them, read into them, draw from them, they become something even greater than I intended them to be.
And THAT makes me happy.
9.12.07. Cropped to 3X5.
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