I am writing this one to shortly describe a rather curious experience I have been gladly going through these past weeks.
Today, if I am to forecast this last remaining year of school that has started around a week ago, I believe it will serve me as enough time to process the latest events, analyze them all and allow them to turn me into a more mature person. I like to think that this "one-year-personal-time-out-
Out of everything that happened during vacations, an apparently insignificant encounter has struck me in a rather unexpected manner. In a quite uneventful afternoon, I was getting ready for another day of work and oddly searching for a pair of black socks hidden under the pile of total mess that I often let my bedroom turn itself into. I glanced at the left corner of the room and, as if it was almost staring at me and saying "Hey, I am here, please use me," I saw my photographic camera, thrown in there (probably since the first day I arrived), right on the floor, as a little toy rejected by a child after getting a new one from his parents.
I grabbed it and, exactly in a period when I was pushing myself towards finding activities to spend some time with, I decided to include my camera back into my daily routines of life again. But this time was different, however. If I am not mistaken, I use to enjoy photography from way back into my childhood, but nowadays it feels like, for the first time, it has providing me with a greater meaning and importance (ah, the perks of growing up..!).
Looking in retrospect, I would often ask myself (and still do) the reason why we, poor human beings of planet Earth, let a number of "extra curricular activities" slip away from our lives in order to give room, for instance, to what is thought to be more relevant or, some would say, "more appropriate/suitable in the jouney of becoming someone in life." Ha!
Along with this typical questioning one might have every once in while comes this also frequent doubt of "alright, so, what exactly constitutes a valid activity to be worth spending our time with, then?" After all, it is so easy to get trapped by the self-imposed rigid structures of our society today that we might, as a result, end up thinking that the "correct" steps of life would resemble something like: going to school, getting ready for thousands of exams, graduating in order to possibly find a good job (etc, etc) and, after finding that job, work hard to receive a promotion, buy a car, buy a house (etc, etc, etc).
For some of you, like me, the answer for the two questions above represents a sort of a dilemma. Nonetheless, it is when we stop to think about them that things can start getting fairly interesting. For example, let's call the act of taking pictures an extra-curricular activity (or whatever you call something that you usually do, with enjoyment, during your leisure time or - according to any source you may find on the Web - any activity that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school or job). Likewise, let's assume that I have been taking pictures of pretty much everything that catches my attention as a hobby - another useful term in this case. Hobbies play different roles depending on what they are meant for and on the type of person undertaking it. It might be an activity one performs in order to break the boring and stressful routines of the day, to fill up time, to avoid procrastination, to relax, or for no well-defined reason. But in addition to all the possible situations just mentioned, hobbies can also play a deeper role in someone's life.
To me, what it has been so awesome about this recent "hobby" of mine is the ability to assess it, both specifically and in a broader sense, with regard to the way it's been affecting me as well as on the new spectrum upon which it has enabled me to face life.
The seemingly simple idea of capturing moments in picture format means nothing less than leaving home trying to figure out what are the scenes I will get to see through the camera lens. Going out to find anything "picturable" can also work as a reason for me not to stay inside my room for hours wasting time with the threatening capabilities of where my mind can lead me to (it is needless to say that time alone is essential, but there are different forms of letting your mind wander off; some better than others, of course). Photographing the world around you means, to a large extent, becoming more aware of your surroundings. With some practice, then, it can allow the photographer to perceive his or her own world by noticing how full of details it is and by realizing the delightfulness of a simple moment and/or scenery we usually take for granted throughout the day.
Similarly, the more time I spend - from a few minutes to a couple of hours - exploring places trying to find the best shot, the more I come to visualize the fact that we seem to live in a pretty shallow reality of what the world around us is actually composed of and what it can provide to each one of us. Staying outdoors going after the best picture of the day means finding beauty where, in the surface, there seems to be none, means becoming an active seeker of moments worth capturing for posterity, means balancing patience and awareness at the same time, means showing others the way you see the world with your own eyes.
I can also relate the act of taking pictures to situations and circumstances we all end up dealing with now and then as life unfolds. It has taught me the importance and uniqueness of what a fraction of a second may represent within a decision-making process. You target the lens toward an object or a person, for example, and, if you take the picture too early, you might risk adjusting the camera features - zoom, angle, lightening, and others - inappropriately. If you wait too much, you might as well miss out on the person's perfect facial expression you wanted to portray in the first place, or that object you wanted a picture of might have disappeared behind a car passing by. Sometimes you won't be given the same exact scenario or not even the same objects or characters ever again. It all comes down to recognizing that one right fraction of a second - not too soon, not too late - and using it in order to get the best result out of it. Analyzing a given situation, thinking quickly and making sure you don't miss it or let it go. And here is a good definition for the word "opportunity," on whatever aspect of life we might be applying it for.
Photography can also teach us a lot about observation, self-expression and the divergence in perspective individuals posses - not only strictly through pictures themselves, but by using other types of art, such as writing, painting, playing an instrument, etc. - upon which we can best express our feelings, thoughts, emotions, values and beliefs. What I perceive as being a good (define good…) picture, therefore, won't have the same effect to a number of other people out there. What I might call an album of pictures taken of poor children in an X area of a Y country a "true and absolute masterpiece of colors, contrasts and reality" might, in turn, represent the very opposite to someone else. This text that I am writing right now, as another form of self-expression or art, if you will, might be positively related and understood by some, while others may read it and think that it is all stupid, wrong, or meaningless.
And this is what makes it all beautiful. That photography exposes the particular perspectives of the photographer. That a poem represents a capturing moment in the life of the author. That an "abstract painting" is everything but abstract to the painter. That street dance might look like an "ugly" dance style for someone, yet for the street dancer, it can mean the vivid representation of his or her own background, whose parents' lives were spent on the suburb communities throughout the 70's.
On a final note, I believe that any source of self-expression, either defined as a hobby, type of art or extra-curricular activity, needs to be constantly explored, developed and made present on our daily lives. And it does not matter how good or bad we are in accomplishing it. I am not a good photographer and don't know anything technical about it. But it still changes the way I perceive the world around me and it also allows me to express myself to an extent that I can share a little bit of my own reality with others.
There is a great deal of opportunities out there that sometimes go "against the normal patterns of life" that our society wants us to follow. The goal, however, should be to keep in mind that these same opportunities usually prove to be more valuable learning tools than a whole life spent in school or in the work environment. Lessons that you won't learn in class, watching your favorite TV show while eating Oreos on a Tuesday afternoon or by oversleeping after a long night of heavy drinking. Life is anything other than "simply what it is," and there sure is a magnificent world of possibilities out there waiting for us to be discovered. Go out there, explore it, change the way you see the world and face reality frequently, and ultimately enjoy the ride as you move along with it :)
