The Photographer
2009
2009-10-01-forfun
I frequently took my son, Aaron, out on photography walks when he was a child, he using a little Sony Cybershot (he went through several) that he also used for his initial film shorts. I didn't explicitly set out to "teach" him photography, I didn't point out subjects, I didn't want him to feel the pressure of pedagogical intention. Instead, I wanted to keep a sense of play, and wanted self-initiation conjoined with a sense of self-esteem that whatever he chose to focus upon was good, I wasn't going to suggest subjects or afterwards critique. This particular walk, he focused a lot on fall leaves on the ground, and some on utility infrastructure, while also playing with a toy action figure he'd carried along. He had already begun appreciating photography when he was about six, first with pictures he had me take of him in costumes he devised, and then with his stop-motion movies he began to make subsequent his initial attempts at short animations when he was very little. The next step for him was taking the camera out into the world.
I took and preserved these photos because of the great sense of joy exhibited in his comprehending photography both as play and art, purposeful self-expression. What will this look like as a photo?
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