Contents
Photography today is one of the most popular hobbies: more and more people sign up for photography courses, post their pictures on the Internet, discuss composition issues with friends … Yes, the technical side of things is getting easier, and the necessary equipment is becoming more accessible. But is this the only thing? Word to our experts.
“A chance to formulate the essence of what is happening”
Olga Sviblova, PhD in Psychology, Director of the Moscow House of Photography.
“On the one hand, a camera in our hands allows us to feel busy and involved in everyday life. We are not just walking in the woods or talking at a party – we have a significant mission: we are not passive observers, but active participants in what is happening, organizing and streamlining its course. At the same time, any photo is always a conceptualization: the aperture formats reality in a certain way – while setting the frame, we tear out one or another of its fragments from the usual context and get the opportunity to look at it from an unexpected angle, analyze and formulate the essence of what we see. All together, this becomes a powerful factor that increases our psychological comfort, so effective that, as world practice shows, good photographers are most often in good health and live a very long time.”
“When we photograph, we symbolically appropriate reality”
Leonid Krol, director of the Institute of Group and Family Psychology and Psychotherapy.
“People need toys – thanks to them, we relieve stress that accumulates at work and in everyday life, and in this sense, the camera is an important and multifunctional toy. It allows us not only to isolate a kind of “moment of magic” in the world around us (a minute ago I didn’t know what to look at, but here, it turns out, there are so many interesting things nearby!), But also, so to speak, in the most civilized way to “mark” reality . Just as in the past “Masha and Kira were here” were carved on trees, today, thanks to photography, we get the opportunity to symbolically appropriate certain fragments of the world around us. Taking our most correct and accurate pictures, we seem to conquer reality, thereby expanding the boundaries of our own “I”.