Most photography writing will tell you how to get the shot. Exposure, composition, focus — the mechanics of the thing. All useful, all necessary, and all, eventually, beside the point.
Because at some stage you stop asking how and start asking why. Why this subject and not that one? Why does one image stop you in your tracks and another, technically perfect, leaves you cold? Why do we photograph at all — and what do we lose when we don’t?
These are the questions I find myself returning to. Not because I have tidy answers, but because I think the asking matters. Photography, for me, has always been as much about attention and intention as it is about aperture and shutter speed. This series is where I think out loud about that.
It started as a loose collection of essays and has grown into something I didn’t entirely plan. There are arguments in here I’ve since changed my mind about. There are observations I’d stand behind indefinitely. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which.
Pull up a chair. This one takes longer than a tutorial.
IJM Photography 