Why are photographs not created but taken?
Paintings are made, Dance or music are created but Photos are taken, why?
There are seven known arts namely- Painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, cinema, music and theater. In early days of photography photos were considered scientific progress not art but in early 1940’s photography was accepted as a form of art.
Other art forms may be inspired by the reality but they are still completely based on the artist. They consider the artists feelings, mood, philosophical experience etc. While, photographer can capture the complete reality. They may manage to create a different meaning by their camera angles but it still is a reality.
Any other artist can create a song, a portrait or a play completely based on their imagination. Though, a photographer need to have those things in reality. It may be a reality or a reality they created. A photograph is nothing but a fragment of time a photographer picks up for himself and many others to revisit.
Sometimes, a photographer waits for months and years with their cameras for that one perfect moment but they never witness it themselves. They sacrifice the moment they longed for to capture it. They miss the moment they imagined countlessly. But, they still keep it for forever. It’s like unrequited love though we might not have the love the feeling of it happening stays.
While other art forms are about recreating the moment/feelings photography is a process of missing out the very instant in order to save it for always. It’s like saving a flower by preserving it in resin. You might not be able to feel it but you can always cherish it.
Hence, you may create or perform other forms of art but you always take a picture.
And everything taken belongs to someone else. And photographs are the moments which belong to the photographers. They keep themselves from witnessing the scenes they longed for, the moments they waited to take and store them to last forever and not just vanish.
( One more reason to cherish photographs even more. Because other art forms are about finding whether emotions or feelings through colors or words or actions, photography is giving it up. )
