As I get ready to write this, I realized I haven't written on here in a very long time. This is unacceptable and to the people who actually read my blog I'm sorry. A lot has been going on recently but don't worry, I have have a full post for that coming soon.
Anyway, the point of this post is to answer a question I get every two to three days from people.
It usually comes after I upload something to Facebook or Instagram.
People will say "Emma, why do you take and post so many fucking photos?"
This question sometimes makes me instantly annoyed so my answer is usually something along the lines of "Because I do."
But I keep getting this question over and over again so I decided to come clean and tell you why I take so many fucking photos.
This addiction started when I got my first camera in 2008. I wasn't shooting much, mostly because I had no idea what I wanted to photograph. So I'd do the basic photographer thing and took pictures of birds and sunsets and such. The only time I really took photos of people was when I would sneak off to to visit my ex boyfriend, get shitfaced and then rely on photos to tell me what happened the night before.
It continued like this for awhile. Different parts of my life sewn across Facebook. With time, I began to figure myself out as a photographer. I realized that I really loved photographing people. This became portraiture and with time turned into a love for fashion photography.
Looking back, one of the things I love about creating stories through photos is remembering how the idea came about. When I look at my editorials, I can remember what I was thinking, what inspired me, what I was feeling and more. I became very self reflective of my photos and it eventually came around to the photos that I would take of my friends when we would go out. When I would look back on the photos I could remember 99% of the things that were happening at that time. I could remember the jokes that were told, the things that were going wrong and more importantly how happy I was in that moment. I began to get a little more serious with this lately, especially after my computer crashed. I was foolish and only saved some of my work on to my hard drive and I lost thousands of photos. The only thing that I had left were the photos left on Instagram and Facebook.
I'd like to think these photos have helped me at times. When i've felt sad, anxious or lonely, I'll look back at the photos and remember that these negative feelings are temporary. I get to see how I've changed with friends or love or even with myself. It's almost therapeutic.
I get to see photos of my family, how my relationship with Brian is growing, how Gatsby is growing and everything in-between.
So, why do I take so many fucking photos?
Because I want to be able to remember why my life was incredible (thanks to everyone in it) when I get older and I'd like to be able to share it with my children one day.
That's why.
