Why do I Photograph what I photograph?

Guy Tal has a very thought-provoking post which is incredibly similar to a reading I did last night by Osho.  They used slightly different terms:

Osho             Guy Tal
Happiness  = Contentment
Pleasure     = Happiness

I prefer Osho’s terms in terms of connotation, but that’s simply semantics. I use Osho’s terms following.

We as individual people suffer, so we seek that which can ease our suffering. Pleasure can ease that suffering. It’s why people seek sex. It’s why some photographers gravitate towards iconic subjects. There’s an immediate satisfaction and emptying of the past and future from the mind while one focuses on the present for a short time. And then for a short while, we feel good because we’ve done exactly that…existed in the here and now.

Both Guy and Osho say to move beyond that.  Find that existence and awareness of the here and now without the external influences – Guy on photography, Osho on life – and then happiness wells from within.  If we study the effects of pleasurable things, really study it, we might see that the glimpses of happiness truly come from within and the object of pleasure is simply a key to unlock the door of our own delusions.

So the answer to the question is that I photograph what I photograph because I’m trying to discover the here and now, to be present.  Photography for me is a tool to free myself. I’m not trying to create art…not anymore…I’m trying to exist, to be, and opening myself to that which is around me.  The earth and photography is one of my tools.

You are reading a blog posting from the photographer Laurent Baig. See more work at his website.