Photography: capturing and creating joy

Lindsey Mione

A photo can say a thousand words. There are so many ways to speak without speaking and one of my favorite ways is through art. I find photography to be artistic because it exemplifies different viewpoints to someone and can be perceived in more than one way just as art would be. Photography has a way of demonstrating to a reader what the artist is passionate about.

I find art through many outlets, my favorite is through sports. Photographing sports is difficult but the most rewarding because the players are so joyful to see photos of themselves and seeing those smiles is all the satisfaction for a photographer to know what they’re doing is impactful.

The difference between a snapshot and a photograph is art. A snapshot is a photo that lacks character; it is something you capture on a whim without care. A photograph has emotion and heart in it. They speak what the writer cannot say. Take a photo of a United States Marine coming home to greet his loved ones. The photo shows him embracing his wife and children, the photo shows the tears in the woman’s eyes, the joy in the man’s face and the love in the child’s. Photography has a way of taking on the idea of ‘show don’t tell.’

There are so many ways to portray a story through photography. For me, I find joy in capturing the emotion in peoples faces. Seeing the joy, heartache, kindness, love and so on. Finding the good in a moment is what photography is about. Being the photo editor allows me to branch out and try new things like photographing news and making it more emotional.

Overtime photography has developed into what we now know as digital, which in a sense is taking the developmental stage out of photography completely. As time goes on, photographs are what people take away from moments. As time goes on a part of history that is remembered is photography. When families gather together they will go through old photos and reminisce about the good old days and the times they shared together.

My favorite part about this art is the reactions. When someone loves my photo or if they tell me it’ll be their background, that is all I could as for. The appreciation, the kindness and the good it does for people. Photography brings people together. They can look back on old memories and see all the smiles on their faces and remember exactly what happened that day and why they were so happy. This form of art is the joy it produces. The kind of good I love to see.