The Beginner Photography Podcast

Manifesto Pt1 - The Goal of Photography is to Enrich the Human Experience

• Raymond Hatfield

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#344 This is Part 1 of my 10 part Photography Manifesto series. In this episode we cover photography manifesto rule number 1, The Goal of Photography is to Enrich the Human Experience. I share with you the importance of photography, the difference between a document and art, and of course HOW you can best make an impact with your photography! To hear the full Photography Manifesto overview episode where I share all 10 manifesto rules listen now https://www.beginnerphotographypodcast.com/podcast/334 


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Raymond Hatfield:

A camera is literally as close to a time machine as we can get. So, if a loved one has passed, being able to still have them, being able to still see them, being able to still remember them, is so, so powerful. Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast brought to you by Cloudspot, the all in one solution for photographers of all skill levels to deliver and sell your photos online. Today, oh today, today we are kicking off our 10 part Photography Manifesto series. And if you have not heard the Photography Manifesto overview episode yet, be sure to check out episode 334. I created this Photography Manifesto because, to be honest, I'm kind of fed up with kind of where we are in the world of, photography education. where we are being told by YouTubers and so called experts that we have to be shooting, All the best gear, all these things. but really it doesn't take much to create a great photo, you know, and shooting in raw is not a photography tip and it will not help you to become a better photographer. The photography manifesto will. So, the Photography Manifesto, again, if you haven't heard episode 334, highly suggest that you do that. But I created it with, well, more than 10 years of personal photography, experience, professional photography experience, and also some of my most important takeaways that I've picked up from interviewing more than 300 world class photographers here on the podcast. So, let's get started. Why don't we go ahead and dive into rule number one, right? When I gave the photography manifesto, this was the one that everybody felt like, all right, I'm on board with this. Right. And so photography manifesto rule number one is that the goal of photography is to enrich the human experience. All right. This is really, really important. Okay. The goal of photography is not to get the most likes on Instagram. The goal of photography is not to acquire all the world's best gear. And the goal of photography is not to make a million dollars. The goal of photography is to enrich the human experience. Now, if you get a bunch of likes, awesome. If you, happen to acquire all the best gear, that's also awesome. And if you make a million dollars, well, then more power to you. But that is not the goal. Of photography. The goal of photography is to enrich the human experience and photography is, is a powerful tool. we love photography. That's why you're listening to the beginner photography podcast. We use it to capture and convey the breadth of human experience. Experience. Photography allows us to document and share our experiences, as well as photography, you know, it helps us to express how we see the world around us. And not for selfish reasons, but for the goal to make somebody else look, feel, make somebody think. You know, how many of us buy a camera when our child is born. How many of us buy a camera when we are going on some special trip, a once in a lifetime trip? And how many of you have bought a camera after just seeing a really powerful photo and thinking to yourself, wow, I would love to be able to do something like that. It's because whatever photograph that you looked at was meaningful to you, it moved you. It enriched your human experience. When a child is born, that enriches your human experience, and you want to capture that. You're going on a special trip. You want to experience that, not only in the moment, on the trip, but you also want to experience it long afterwards, through your photographs. Again, it enhances the human experience. Now, when we are thinking more logically, right, there are really only two reasons to buy a camera. Reason number one is simply for documentation. And reason number two is art. Now, documentary photography is not the same as a photo that is a document, okay? Technically a fax. that you would receive is a photograph. So, like, that is not art, right? That is also not documentary photography. Documentation photography is more like the noun of the photography world, right? It is, here is a person, here is a place, here is a thing. And these images have no additional considerations made for things like, light, composition, moment, or feeling. Thank you. Now, if photography is an art, well, it provides an opportunity for creative expression. That creative expression that often goes beyond what we can see with the naked eye. These are things like moment, light, composition, feeling. Now, one is not inherently better than the other. Both types of photography, Documentation and art, they both enrich the human experience. One may be more utilitarian than the other, but, hey, my dad passed away when I was young. I never really got to know him, right? And I do have, he took a selfie, with a Polaroid. That is a document of who he was. There's no other considerations taken. you know, his enlistment photo in the Coast Guard. Again, just a document. But it's more important than, many of the photos that I've taken that had a focus on art. Photography also makes your children feel more confident. Right? If we're talking about enriching the human experience, we're talking about buying cameras because of life events, including a child being born, photography makes your children more confident. And we know that through clinical studies. We have found that when children see themselves in family photos, it helps kids to feel more confident and secure in their own identity. When children are able to view pictures of themselves alongside parents, siblings, what it does to a kid is that it serves as an affirmation, it serves as a reinforcement, scientists found, of their importance within the family unit. Now, this Is, a physical representation, a photograph, and it helps them to recognize that they belong and that they have value. Being able to look back on these images throughout life also provides things like emotional stability, helping them to build that self esteem, helping them to build confidence when they go through these difficult times or, you know, periods of transition. When I had moved away from my home to go to film school, it's a difficult time. That is a period of transition. Suddenly you, even though, you're out on your own, and you look forward to that moment growing up, it's lonely. So being able to see a photograph of, my mom, Being able to see a photograph of my mom and my grandma or, that selfie of my dad helps, again, to reinforce that you're not alone. it may feel lonely, but you're not alone. And if you need some help, people are here who want to help you. And beyond, a simple identity validation, photos can also remind kids of. Shared moments, shared memories with family members or, significant others that bring about feelings of joy and happiness. So, looking at photos for kids is incredibly important, right? It gives them a greater sense of belonging. It gives them a sense of comfort and protection. It gives children deeper feelings of being loved and cared for. And that's what you want for a child. You want your child to feel loved. You want your child to feel cared for. You want them to know that they belong in your family. And because of all that, it helps kids do better in school as well. They have a better understanding that their actions affect others. They're able to create deeper personal and professional relationships, which leads to strong feelings of personal fulfillment. Now, I understand that we're talking a lot about kids here and, showing them photos, but this is to show how powerful photography can be. Right? This is at its core, I mean the difference of, or this is the meaning rather, of enriching the human experience. Your child has a human experience, that they have questions, they don't understand everything, but giving them that, security, hey, you're part of our family, here's proof, we have fun together, here's proof, goes a long way and can change the trajectory of their entire life. And, these can be simple documented photographs, and their impact will still feel strong and have these long lasting changes. It doesn't necessarily have to be an artistic image for it to be powerful to a child. But that begs the question, what makes a photo more than just a photo? We've talked about that here on the podcast before, what makes a photo more than just a snapshot? There's nothing wrong with a snapshot. I love taking snapshots, but snapshots are just documents. They're not done in an artistic way. And therefore, the difference between a photo that's just a document and one that is done with artistic intention in mind is, well, I just gave it away, it's intention. When you see a scene in front of you, and you think, this would be a good photo, and you, you know, you put the camera to your eye, if you intend for the photo to look in a certain way. If you say, this is a beautiful sunset, and then you go to take the photo, and it's overexposed, right? Because the ground is going to be, quite, underexposed because it's dim, right? so the camera's gonna overcompensate and make the, I'm sorry, make the photo overexposed. But that's not gonna give you the best sunset colors, right? So you have to tell the camera, and you know what, actually under expose this photo. And when you have that, just something as simple as that, right? when you have an intention of how a photo should look, that it should look a certain way, that is what art looks like in a photo. It's intention. It means that you have something to say, right? And then you use the tool at your disposal, your camera to make what you have to say as powerful as possible. Now, if we take tools as a photographer, right, there are many tools that we can use, and I think we would typically think, all the camera, the lens, memory card, tripod, flash, what tools do you have as a photographer that are outside of tangible gear, right? What tools do you have? That's not gear because you can take a great photo with an iPhone. You can also take a crappy photo with an iPhone. You can take a great photo with, a DSLR. You can take a bad photo with a DSLR. So what tools like taking, removing gear from the equation? What tools do we have as photographers? We have moment, we have light, we have composition. And we have feeling. That's it. That is it. That is a photograph right there. It doesn't matter if you're shooting with an iPhone. If you got moment, you got light, you got composition, you got a feeling. Man, that's a great photo. It's way better than a snapshot taken with, professional grade camera body, professional grade lenses. Way better. The more that you can incorporate those four elements, moment, light, composition, feeling, the more that you can incorporate those four elements into a photo, the stronger that photo is going to be. All right, so now we have covered the importance of photography. We have covered what is the difference between a document and what is art in photography. Now, I want to talk a bit about how do we make an impact with our photos. Because simply taking a photo means, well, very little, because on its own it can't make an impact. Taking a photo does not make an impact. Unless you're photographing somebody who's really like starved for attention. They probably don't care about the photos. They just want to know that, somebody's taking a photo of them outside of that for a photo to mean something, someone has to see it. That's there you go. That's how you make an impact. Somebody has to see your work. I want you to think about some of the craziest or the most beautiful photos that you've seen on social media. There have been a lot, maybe you're a part of a bunch of Facebook groups. You've seen a lot of beautiful photos. Maybe you follow a bunch of, great photographers on Instagram. You've seen a bunch of photos. Same with Pinterest, right? Photographers love to post their photos on Pinterest. You've seen a bunch of beautiful photos. All right, now I want you to think about all the photos that weren't shared online. Well, you can't. You can't think about those photos because you have no idea what those photos are. don't know what photos were or weren't taken, either. And that right there is proof enough that in order to make an impact with your photography, others have to see it. I'm not saying that you have to share those photos on social media. That's just a, you know, an example. I could have said the same thing about, a magazine. Think about all the great photos that you've seen in magazines. Now think about all the great photos that weren't posted in those magazines. You can't, because you have no idea. You have no idea. Again, proof that in order to make an impact with your photography, others have to see it. Now, again, if social media isn't your gig, that's fine. It's not really mine either. The goal of photography is not to share your photos with everyone in the world. That means nothing. Every single year, I make a family yearbook, right? Of all of the activities that we've done together as a family, and these can be photos that I took with just a cell phone or with my Fuji cameras, that were taken with intention, both documents and art. Do I share that with you? No. Do I share that online? No. I share it with those who I know are going to be most impacted. And that's my family. So in that case, My audience is three, my two kids, my wife, and if anybody else wants to look at it, it's fine or whatever. But the way that I share those photos is not intended for anybody else. So that to me is the best way that I can make an impact with my photos, right? That I can remind my kids, Hey, we do a lot of fun things together. growing up, my mom made scrapbooks. Yeah. But, you know, each page might have had like two photos on it, maybe three, if you were lucky. And they're huge! These things are massive! Like a two inch thick binder has like 30 pages in it, you know, it's huge. So for me, being able to share the most amount of photos in a book is the way that I make the most impact for my family with these photographs. Otherwise, why am I taking photographs? If you want to share your photos with the world find a reason why you want to share your photos. That's going to be the key, right? Because some people do want for everybody to see their photos. And that's great, you really want to make an impact on as many lives as possible. That's fine. But figure out, like, why do you want to do that? Because if, likes and, well, Social media Algorithms are changing, like, all the time, right? Always fluctuating, meaning you can't rely on them. So you can't rely on likes. You can't guarantee that your photos are going to be seen. So figuring out why you want to share your photos to as many people as possible on social media is, again, of the utmost importance. if that's what you want to do. If that's how you determine that you're going to make the biggest impact. better to share a photo because you think somebody will find it interesting or better, rather than sharing the photo to get validation through likes. Because the most liked photographs are not always the best. you can go to your, I don't know what it's called, For You page or whatever, and there's a lot of garbage. And that's because the most liked photos, again, are not the best. Maybe somebody's really good at having people interact with their photos and then that's going to boost the algorithm and then that's going to make more people see it. And then, by default, more people are going to like it, whatever, there's, so many reasons. So try to figure out your why, like, what are you trying to say to the world that the world can understand that's your intention? Now, I'm able to not only enrich my children's lives, but Mine as well, because my main motivation in photography is that, how do I put this? I love knowing that I'm currently documenting the past. So, as I said earlier, my dad passed away when I was very young. I never knew him. But my mom has shared with me photos from their wedding and things like that, and seeing him and the car that he drove in the seventies or him and his friends, in their clothes of what average life looked like back then. Absolutely fascinates me. something about, I can go to that exact same place that a photo was taken, the exact same place, and find that everything is different. And you can never be there in that photo. Like, in that sense, it truly is as close to a time machine as you're going to get. And that's what I want to give to my kids through these yearbooks. I want them to be able to look back and be like, holy cow, look what cars look like back then. Look what, this, um, box of Cheez Its looked like back then. These aren't big things. You know, they're not life changing things. But it sets us like a, mile marker to what the world was like at a certain point in time through my eyes. And I love that idea. And if they grow up and they hate the books, well, that's okay, because I'm also doing it for me. I think that's fascinating. I want to be able to go back and look at those photos as well while I'm also documenting my kids activities and their childhood growing up. You know, my mom lives today a few thousand miles away from us. Which means that she loves seeing photos of the kids because, she can't be out here as often as she would like. And sure, sometimes, my daughter's doing something crazy. The other day, my son had a croissant for the first time, and he's 10, and he said, if I was a dog right now, I'd be wagging my tail because he liked it so much. And I laughed. I thought that was hilarious. So I took a photo of him eating a croissant, and I sent it to my mom. well, sometimes, I'm not very consistent with it. So last year I bought my mom a Google Home, one of the ones with a display in it, and I configured it to display our photos of the kids. I just made a simple rule within Google Photos to make an album that had, uh, Our kids in it. Every time I took a photo of my kids, it would just automatically get added to that album and I used that album as a screensaver for my mom's Google Home, right? That means a lot to her since she can't always be here with us. And as much as I love you for being a listener of the podcast, I'm not gonna do the same for you. In fact, that would be really creepy if you had a Google Home in your house that constantly displayed photos of my kids. I would be freaked out. Probably call the police. But the point is, is that the intention, right, the person who that is going to impact is not the world. You can make an impact by showing your photos to just one person. You don't have to try to change the world. Just one person. Just enrich one person's life with photography. And now, every time something happens, we go roller skating or whatever with the kids, We take some photos just because that's what you do as a parent who's also a photographer, right? And then those photos just automatically get uploaded to Google. And then, I'll get a call or a text from my mom saying like, Oh, skating looked like a bunch of fun. I hope you guys had a good time. And then that just opens up the door for conversation that maybe I would, lie to myself and say, Oh, I'm way too busy, to call or talk to my mom right now. But I'm able to do that. My photography is able to build stronger connections because I know who I am. The images are designed for, and I know whose life my photos are going to impact and whose life is going to be enriched, right? I take hundreds of photos each and every month, right, with my phone. And a lot of those photos have a focus on composition, light, moment, feeling. So at the end of the month, I upload all of those photos to a private CloudSpot gallery for you to see. Yes, you, the listener. I'm talking to you. I really don't spend a lot of time on social media, but I still want you to see the photos and that images don't always have to be taken with a quote unquote real camera to be real good. You can take great photos with your cell phone if you focus on those four things. Composition, light, moment, and feeling. And if you want to see any of these photos, from my monthly photo dump, you can do so right now, just head over to beginner photopod. com forward slash photo dump again, beginner photopod. com forward slash photo dump. Now, when I asked those of you in the group, because this manifesto is not made for me, it is made for you. I want to know how photography has enriched. Your life or those around you right so I asked you in the beginner photography podcast community I asked you to share a photo with me that holds meaning to you, and I wanted you to tell us why and You know you don't always expect Great photos because some of my favorite photos are just documentation Just a snapshot But there was something about it. either my child or what have you that I found really meaningful But you all came through with so many incredible photos and answers. So James shared a photo of his young daughter picking flowers in a field. And he said, this photo evokes the wonders of the world that are in the fresh eyes of a child. Holy cow. How do you top that? how do you do that with anything but a photograph? Melissa shared an image of her dog Murphy, just looking carefree and happy, but Murphy passed away a few years ago. So Melissa said this photo captures everything about him, his beautiful personality and his gentle soul. As I said, a camera is literally as close to a time machine as we can get. So, if a loved one has passed, being able to still have them, being able to still see them, being able to still remember them, is so, so powerful. Then Jim, Jim had to chime in, of course. Jim shared a photo of his wife holding his young son's hand while he was still very new to learning how to walk. And he said, Jim said, he knew that this moment would be important and one of the reasons why he bought a camera in the first place. And that was the catalyst that helped him to know that he wanted to use a camera to document family life and not just take snapshots. Jim bought a camera because, you know, his son was born and he wanted to document that. And you think about those milestones, learning how to walk, taking those first steps. That's a big one. So he practiced and he got the shot. And it's not the best shot in the world because Jim was still new to photography, just like, Jim's son would say that that wasn't his best job walking in the world. Cause he's going to keep getting better at it. He was still new to it, but that was the catalyst that helped Jim know that he really wanted to use his camera more than just snapshots, but to really document his family, that is powerful. And then Magda, oh Magda, Magda Magda, brought a tear to my eye, I'm telling you what, she shared a photo, incredibly tough to capture. In this photo, it is her, her son, and her best friend holding her hands, while Magda's husband is shaving her head while she was undergoing chemo. I, I don't even have words, Magda said, I'm glad that I got the photo to show my kids when they are older. Think about that, knowing, we all go through struggles. Our parents went through struggles. We probably didn't know them all because they had no way of, I mean, yeah, they had a camera, they had photography. they could have taken a Polaroid. They could have taken a snapshot, whatever, but it just wasn't as predominant. in the world of our parents than what we have today. So imagine being able to see those moments of your parent, just really scared, nervous, unsure of the future, but still brave and willing to just, fight head on, looking at them in the face, figuring out how they were feeling. Seeing that emotion, feeling that, my goodness, what more is there to say? You know, these photos are, they're incredibly powerful for personal reasons. Each one of these photographers, the people in these photos, or Melissa's case, the people who knew Murphy, these photos enrich the human experience, whether it's just for us or it's our family or it's for the world to see. or our kids when they get older, these photos have weight, these photos have power. Now your job as a photographer is to figure out how your work can make a bigger impact on those around you. And I want to challenge you, not to think big, I want to challenge you to think small. I want you to share your photos, that you took of your own local town in a coffee shop. Or doctor's office. Share your photos of, a sunrise in a local Facebook group. Share your photos of your kids with your parents. Share your film photos from your childhood with your kids today so that they can see the past. Photography is not just a hobby. Photography is not just something that you do in your spare time. is how you enrich the human experience. The power of photography is undeniable. It has the ability to transform our lives through incredibly impactful images. By understanding how others live their lives, we can gain valuable perspectives on the human experience as a whole. From documenting historical events to literally just showing everyday moments. Photography helps us to appreciate life and all of its complexity by providing us with this unfiltered look at reality. This art form of photography not only provides us with these powerful visuals, but it also gives us this unique opportunity to explore new places, gain insight into the lives of others. People who live lives different than our own. Your photos can change somebody's life. Your photos will enrich the human experience. That's it for this week. Until next week, remember, the more that you shoot today, the more of a chance you will have to enrich somebody else's human experience. Talk soon. Thank you for listening to the Beginner Photography Podcast. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review in iTunes. Keep shooting, and we'll see you next week.