Why I photograph, what I hope to achieve

This is my answer to assignment #1:

Why do I photograph (listed in order of importance):

1) First & most importantly: To help me make sense of, and deal with the world around me, and my emotional responses to it. I take pictures to capture and express to myself the feelings and experiences I have. I need to take these pictures and I actively go out daily to search for them and shoot them because when I succeed in creating an image that echos some deep emotional experience or physical sensation or internal knowledge I attain a state of almost euphoric joy and peace because I know that I have transformed a part of who I am into something outside of myself, something that I can behold from a external perspective.

2) Secondly, I photograph to connect or communicate with other people. I mean this in two ways. First, I want people to see my work, and hopefully experience it in a way that is equal in power and affect to my experience of creating it. I don't mean they should have the same experience or response -- but I'd like to think that what I capture in my images are some essential and potent "truths" about human experience.

I also want to connect with people through the act of photographing them. I deeply enjoy meeting people and photographing them -- and the process of going out to photograph is a social adventure for me.

3) Thirdly, I also enjoy photographing to explore new ways of seeing.

4) I would like to be able to make money, possibly even a living from my artwork, and photography in general.

5) Lastly, I want to famous and admired as a genius and groundbreaking artist. But more practically, I would settle for at least knowing that my work will survive me, and that other people in later generations would get to experience my work, and therefore know something of who I was.

Now for What do I hope to achieve? I've linked these goals to the mission statement numbers above, so you can see what they relate to, and also see them in the order of importance:

1) I want to be able to go out and photograph every day, and I need to be able to go out at least once a week for several hours to meditate with my camera. I need to have the time, and also be able to get into the emotional/psychological state or space to do this. I also want/need to have the time and means to produce final images and series of images and prints and books and installations, etc. -- so that I can successfully externalize the experience and complete the dialogue I am having with myself.

2) I want to continue to regularly have solo exhibits of my work and to show my work on the Internet and publish books and get my work collected and exhibited by museums and collectors so that I know other people will experience my work and share in how I experience life and who I am.

I also want to continue to have the means to travel and explore the world and be able to meet and photograph strangers.

3) I want to continue to expand my knowledge of photographic possibilities and technical innovations. I want to continue to take chances with how I create images, trying to stay open to seeing with fresh eyes, not trying to fit my pictures into a box or label of "beauty."

4) I want to produce work and find venues to sell my work. My goal is modest, maybe to make a one or two thousand dollars a year from my work. If I could make more, that would be great, but it's more important that people who value my work have the means to experience my work. I will also continue to pursue opportunities to teach and work in the broader field of photography, because that helps me to stay connected, to share my joy of photography, to reach an audience that might buy my work.

5) I want to get my worked collected by major museums and collectors. I want to promote myself and get my work out in front of large audience. I want people in the press to know who I am and write about my work.

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Finally, what I would do after compiling these lists, is come up with much more specific and detailed objectives to work towards that would take me toward achieving my larger goals. And it's very important to keep in mind the order of importance of my goals, so that I don't try too hard for fame and fortune for example, if it means I quit focusing on priority number one of just creating and showing my work. (But this is just for me, it's totally fair and reasonable that another photographer has as a top priority fame or fortune, or simply to make a living as an artist.)