Voyeur or photographer?

As one who loves to capture select moments of my daily life in photos I start to wonder sometimes what the draw is when I feel so compelled to grab a shot before it leaves my proverbial frame. Am I making art or stealing a moment? Am I the observer? The archivist? The collector of treasured scenes? Or perhaps am I simply an outsider watching the scene unfold before me, akin to a voyeur?

Really, ponder this if you will. Is there a difference between one who stands anonymously in a darkened room simply watching life unfolding outside with keen awareness, and a photographer with camera in front of their face capturing life unfolding before them, this time with a sense of permanence as it is recorded?

Judge not the voyeur, for it is only a matter of time before you are the one being observed as you are photographing another. . .

Context is fundamental in reading images

Falling down or shooting up? What do you see? How do you see it? In what context is this image resonating within your consciousness, your world, your universe?

Funny how the state of mind we're in at the moment we first come across an image can so dramatically change the way we see or "read" an image. As crazy as it may seem, we've all experienced it when eating something at some point in our lives. Come on! Who hasn't found him or her self shelling and enjoying a delicious bowl of pistachio nuts when, without looking, you shell one and plop it in your mouth and it's one of those rancid bitter ones. Now, think about how that would color your view of that whole bowl you just enjoyed if that bitter one was the last one to be had. What impression do you think you'd have the next time you saw a bowl of pistachio nuts?! Delicious and tasty or rancid and bitter?!

Unlike pistachio nuts, if an photo resonates within you in a manner that leaves you with a bad taste or uncomfortable feeling, fear not! There are always more images in the bowl. . .