Photography as Autobiography

I recently read an interview with a documentary photographer who rejected the title of documentary photographer. That sounds odd at first glance, but I get it. Most of us would prefer to not be pigeon-holed. But his argument was different. He claimed that documentary photography was not even a possibility. His argument was this: Every photograph he took revealed a bit of himself, regardless of how dispassionate or objective the image appeared to be. I first dismissed his argument out of hand, yet I keep coming back to it.

As photographer, so the saying goes, we have only three decisions to make: where to point the camera, where to stand, and when to release the shutter. Each of these things is subjective, and being subjective, each of these steps reveals a bit of ourselves as we make them. In that sense, I've come to realize that he was correct. We might take on documentary projects but there is no escaping that we reveal something of ourselves in the making. But there's more.

As a photographer my interests have changed over the years. I've done portrait projects, worked as a s0-called documentary photographer, dabbled in landscape photography, and so on. There was a time when I liked a lot of information in an image, lots of stuff to tease out. The image below, for instance, invites the eye to roam broadly. There is the Bert and Ernie doll on the right, and the man on the left, peering up the street; there is the flag, and then, strolling across the image, is the rather odd-looking fellow. Lots of points of interest. By taking this photo I made decisions that reveal what I like in an image, and in that respect, I was revealing a bit of myself.

Fast-forward a decade or two. I've realized recently that the images I'm making these days are much less complex than images past. They are more often images that reflect a high degree of solitude, of quietude, and even of reflection. If you know me, you will know that my life is quite simple these days, that my days are quiet and that I more than ever am seeking and reveling in solitude and quiet time. Consider these current images.

There is not a lot of information. Instead there is a mood, and a hint of reflection.

And this image, unusual for me in the it is missing the human element, an aspect of my photography I consider vital. And yet...

So, he was right, I think. Every image we make reveals something about ourselves, each is a sort of autobiographical artifact. In a real tangible way, our personal photo archive (that is, not the images we've created for clients or assignments) is our autobiography. This notion was absurd when I first considered it, but I now realize it is unequivocally correct. As photographers we are embedded not only in the making of our images, but in the images themselves.

Thanks for reading. You can find me at Doug Bruns Photography.