Transcript

The Gift of Boring Photographs | Janet Boyko | TEDxYouth@ShorelineBlvd

so I imagine that there are at least a few of you out there right now wondering if this talk is going to be boring um I'm a photographer so maybe I might show you some photographs of boring things and suggest that you also take some photographs of boring things well I hope that this talk won't be too boring but the other part of what I said is exactly true I'd love to take photographs of parts of everyday life That Others May often overlook in fact there are things that on most days I might Overlook but on the day that I take the photograph for some reason they catch my eye sometimes these things are in my home sometimes they're out in the world and believe it or not photographing ordinary moments is even a service I provide to my clients part of my photographic practice is documentary family photography documentary means that I work to make photographs that are unposed and unstaged when I do a documentary family session I come in and I spend time with the family hanging out and doing whatever it is that that family likes to do together and photograph it whether they're playing with the dog or laughing and giggling together or the crying because they've scraped a knee I'm there to quietly document the moments the goal is to create honest images of family interactions and connections instead of Poe's portraits where everyone is wearing clothes they don't normally wear and they're arranged in uncomfortable positions I focus on coming into my clients environment where they're comfortable and doing whatever it is that they like to do together I want to create photographs from my families that remind them not only of what life looked like but what life felt like and having the documentary family photographer means that everyone can be in the moment together and they can all be in the photographs together because when someone in the family is taking photographs then they're not in them and having someone practiced at light and composition and anticipating moment can make for more well-worthy images here's the thing though you don't need to be a master of light and composition in order to make so many meaningful photographs for yourself so here we are in this room together today we're at this memorable event so it's a little bit different than your average every day but I know for me having a picture of something can bring back a whole flood of memories about the time that I click the shutter so I don't want you all to do right now though is pick up your phone if it has a camera on it the phone and just make one photograph just one picture it could be a selfie it could be a photograph of someone you're with it could be a picture of the stage just one quick photograph that is a detail that you want to remember about today look at you all look at you all you're being photographers look yay do this this is good because what you've just done for yourself is create a gift to your future self and in five years when you look at that photograph hopefully you will remember the detail that you chose to take a picture of but hopefully it will also jog your memory as to maybe the topic of this talk maybe the great company you had while you were here today maybe topics of other talks that we have throughout today maybe just your haircut that you had today and it was either particularly good or particularly bad you know photographs are a gift that can help you remember so today is a little more memorable than your average day so I want you to think about some of the things that you might take photographs of in your daily life that help you to remember things what does your favorite restaurant look like what about your favorite meal what about your neighborhood or your house what what do you use to get around a car a bike a bus what do you wear what's your favorite piece of clothing or your favorite pair of shoes what do you keep in your bag or your purse what's the view out your window what's on your bookcase do you have um a stack of books that you've recently read what about Electronics your computers iPads iPhones gaming consoles what's something you've made recently photographs are a gift that can remember help you remember these things because things change life changes in a day and a week in a year in 10 years in 30 years things change people come and go your restaurants come and go The View out your window changes you think you will remember these things and yet They do change and it can be so hard to remember so photographs are a gift that can help you remember this is my bedroom from middle school um it's a little bit of a fuzzy photograph because it was taken probably on a tiny little uh circular film camera in 1982 but you can still see so many parts of my room um there's photographs of my friends from the seventh grade on the wall and a couple of actors I thought were really cute uh my Garfield sheets um my corded telephone like that is definitely ages me um and my baby bassinet is still there which I have crammed with dolls and stuffed animals but things change and in a couple of years I was in high school and my cats replaced my Garfield sheets I've got some new actors on the wall and my seventh grade uh friends have been replaced by my high school poster but things change and in a couple of years I was in college and this was my first apartment and I have a totally different set of furniture new color scheme and my high school boyfriend's photograph is on the on the nightstand and actually he's my husband and we've been married 26 years this week so things change some things stay the same but photographs are a gift that can help you remember so how do I know what to take photographs of so many things in daily life that you could photograph and and how do you know what's going to be important to you I use one guiding question and it's pretty simple what do I find interesting now that may seem to be the opposite of what I've been talking about which is sort of mundane subjects but the thing is what I find interesting may not be interesting to you and what you find interesting today you might not have found it interesting yesterday I take photographs of phone booths and quirky plants and colorful utility covers because when I'm out and about I find these things interesting uh there's a German couple photographer Baron and Hilla Becker they spent many years photographing water towers and cooling towers and grain elevators and coal bunkers and these things may seem very mundane and boring to a lot of people but not to the Beckers they found them very interesting and they created a fascinating collection of photographs and this is a exhibit of their work that's currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City so my point is that interesting is in the eye of the beholder and you should figure out what's interesting to you it could be landmarks on your favorite walk it could be the daily antics of your pets it could be weird and unexpected things you find when you're out in the world or a whole combination of these things and as you're thinking about what is interesting to you I hope you will see that photography is not just about the images you create but about this experience you have while creating them and telling your story I find that photography for me is often a scavenger hunt of finding things that are beautiful or interesting and I've seen and noticing and sort of collecting images and I also find that that making these images is kind of like painting or making music and it's really a gift to my current self as well as my future self so imagine imagine if you took one photo a day of something interesting just one photo every day and you just took one and it was so fast and simple if you have one photo of something that's interesting to you every day you would create this incredible visual diary that's a thread throughout your life and I suggest thinking of this visual diary as a new kind of selfie not for social media but for yourself with traditional selfies we get caught up in comparing ourselves to others but we could instead take the perspective of using our camera lens to really see and notice what's around us and to keep a diary of what is interesting to us through our lives now this isn't to say that you should never take selfies I do sometimes because I want to show my face in pictures with traditional selfies um I mean with traditional selfies you do get caught up in comparing yourself to others but they're also really important for not just for yourself but for your children and generations to come because they want to be able to see you in pictures I recently came across this amazing photograph which is actually my grandmother as a baby so that's my grandmother being held by her mother with her grandmother and her great-grandmother so that's my great great great grandmother now imagine if those women had decided they didn't want to get in front of the camera that day their hair wasn't exactly right or they gained five pounds or they'd gained 50 pounds I wouldn't have this precious gift today and it's so um special to me so the theme today is catalyst and for me photography is a catalyst for creativity for capturing moments and for appreciating my life and telling my life stories and I hope that you I challenge you to see that camera that you keep in your pocket every day and use it as a catalyst for yourself imagine just one photo a day taking pictures is savoring life intensely every hundredth of a second thank you [Applause]