Thursday, October 16, 2008

Do not hide yourself behind your camera

I think there are lots of meanings in this sentence: "Do not hide yourself behind your camera." Please let me know what you think.

5 comments:

USelaine said...

The sentence immediately reminded me of a (German, in English translation) book I read in college, "Homo Faber" by Max Frisch. A central theme was that the man kept detached from feeling strongly about his relationships or experiences by filtering them through the technology of his camera.

But for many of us, the pictures we show to people are a way of telling things about ourselves that would be hidden otherwise. Does that make sense?

Laurie Allee said...

I love what Elaine said. I agree. On the one hand, the camera acts as barrier. But on the other, it acts as interpreter through the pictures it captures.

Hope said...

I agree with Laurie and Uselaine. I find myself hiding behind my camera almost always. Because of this I have lots of photos of my family, landscapes, and so on. But rarely a photo of myself. I should use the self-timer feature more often. In the meantime, my thoughts, feelings, and personality shines through in the images I do create. In that way, I can be found in my photos!

Dina said...

What the three previous comments say is true and wise.
I have never heard "Do not hide yourself behind your camera" so I have to think about it a while.
What I do more often than that is to hide MY CAMERA behind me, like yesterday in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood where people don't want to be photographed.

You got a good shot to illustrate your question, Meead.

Tash said...

To me it means: Stop taking pictures & start interacting so I can get to know you.