You must always attempt to understand the motivation behind everything. Behind everything, there is a reason. Someone donates a million dollars to a cause, there is a reason why that person has a propensity towards that action. Someone mugs someone in a dark alleyway, there is a reason why that person has come to that place in their life.
I am a photojournalist. The most difficult thing to do is to photograph without reason.
The camera can get me into things that I otherwise could never by myself. Into other people’s intimate family moments, behind the “Do Not Enter” signs where it is dangerous or secret, or within reach of famous people…
…but to do my job, my motivation must be pure and true.
And I can photograph all sorts of private things and get into other people’s world, but what if the camera is turned on me or my family?
Photographing other people is easy, but what about turning the camera on my own mother helping my own ailing grandfather in his 7th floor hospital room?
To document your life, or anyone’s life, you must be honest. There is not only joy and love in life, full of Christmas presents and birthday cakes and weddings and vacations. There is also age and sickness, dimly-lit rooms full of beeping things and uncomfortable situations.
Should anyone – any photojournalist or record keeper – dare to only show one side of life and forsake all else? And how can I ask my subjects, “Let me into your world!” if I refuse to pull back my own curtain every now and then.
Anyone can hide from that which is uncomfortable. That is the easy way of things.
But I believe that my quality of life can depend largely on the honesty with which I can say, “I know the good because I remember the bad.”
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
