I have not been seeing a lot of publicity on Non-Photography Day (that’s today, July 17) anywhere except on the photography blogs where, predictably, it gets a vociferous negative response.
I actually don’t have a problem with the concept. For a lot of people, photography replaces experience. We’ve all seen the following at scenic viewpoints: car screeches to stop, husband gets out, takes a photo, and they drive off. In under 30 seconds. For those people, you do want to shake them and say, did you even look at where you are?
Becca Bland, the organizer of Non-Photography Day, puts it more eloquently:
"This day was made after trekking through the Jungle on the Thailand/Burma Border with a group of travellers. As you would expect we came across many wonderful views, villages and creatures on our way; however I noticed that the people around me were living in these moments through their camera, and as soon as we stopped and were still, all reached for their camera.
"I felt my fellow travellers rarely really appreciated the essence of the moment they were in or engaged in any relationship between themselves and the places we stopped. They were more concerned with gaining the pattern the camera made. I felt sad for them, as it seemed they were missing out on so much reality through their obsession, an act of possession- of wanting to own the appearance of the place, as if this was all it had to give and photographs were their way of taking it."
That I use photography to do precisely the opposite is not the point of this non-photography exercise. I actually hope it might begin a reasonable discussion on the place of photography in modern life.
There’s a nice article on the BBC website on the event and the thinking behind it.
You can see the photo I didn't not take today on my Daily page.
Comments