Photographs and sense of "self"

Photographs.

They have something magical about them. For me, it's the sense of a soul.

A sense of life.

Regardless of what type of photograph you take: portrait, landscape, fine-art, documentary, etc. I believe if you look hard enough you can see the photographer himself/herself. So in a way..everything is self-portraiture. Or should be at least.

Well, what about portraits you say? Sure, you can capture someone else's essence, but by doing so, I think you are in that photograph as well, physically or not. An example is this photograph by Dorothea Lange titled Migrant Mother:

Great-depression. Sad. Powerful. Iconic.
As I look at this image, I not only see the woman and her children and everything else that is going on in the picture...i can "see" the photographer herself. Perhaps what she was trying to convey. Perhaps her intentions. But it's not just about the subject in the photograph, it's also about the photographer as well.

I just think it's amazing to be able to take a photograph and let it become a part of you. It's like every time you take a photograph, you're making a tiny little imprint of yourself.

It's like what Ansel Adams said: "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."

I guess where I'm going with this is that because of this feeling that each photograph is a part of me, I find it hard to delete some of them and feel strong about certain images running in the paper or not.

When it comes to choosing photos for the paper, the process is similar to putting yourself out there for someone to see and then they'll choose certain qualities they like about yourself, which you like as well, but other times they might choose those other qualities that are okay, but you prefer those other ones better.

And you want them to like your better qualities, not the others.

So I've created this blog to post those forgotten photos. those photos that didn't quite make it but perhaps should of.