Number Eight: On Purpose?

What is the purpose of art?

That is the eternal question. If you’re hoping to find the answer here, think again. Now might be a good time to turn around. It is, as most discussions are, inconclusive at best and wildly infuriating at worst. Philosophers and artists have, for ages, debated, pontificated about and disagreed about the nature of art. Along with ideas like love and time, this concept has brought us no closer than we are to grasping the air.

This leads me to the even more pressing question: as an extension of the question of art. What is the purpose of photography? Is it to preserve moments? To commercialize our narcissistic tendencies? To celebrate, discover, or interpret life? Is it an artistic pursuit or documentative in its essence? What is its ethos?

For every child that picked up a camera and snapped an image, the meaning of the form is realized not by discussion but by action. Discussions are helpful and we cannot hope to move the art form forward without discussion. However, at its core, photography is taking pictures. Photography is, as defined by Merriam-Webster, “the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (such as film or an optical sensor).” Photography is production. It’s purpose is to produce.

If every photographer, including but not limited to portrait, commercial, landscape, journalism, commissioned, and personal all decided to put their cameras down for good, the discussions about the present and future of photography would cease. We could only discuss the past but what it means to us in 2026 and onward would no longer be relevant. Discussion, analysis and interpretation are made based on created work and without these creations, we have nothing to talk about.

So, to every kid with a toy camera, make photos. For every adult with a point-and-shoot camera, make photos. For every mother or father with a camera phone, make photos. For every professional, semi-professional and amateur with a consumer or professional camera, make photos. For every black-and-white photographer, color photographer, large format photographer, analog photographer and digital photographer, make photos. For every Sony, Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Hasselblad, Pentax, Kodak, mirrored or mirrorless photographer, make photos. For every natural light photographer and flash photographer, make photos. Make more and more. Let the meaning and purpose of photography reveal itself through the continued work as we all contribute equally to this artistic expression.