Why Did You Photograph This?

I made this image when we went to Pozos for Kate McKenna's show at Galeria 6. The small blue vase was sitting on a sunny yellow bench with the light streaming in from a window to the back right. So why did I photograph it?

This week I had a friend look at a stack of photographys that I have printed large and I'll take back them to Texas when we go so I'll have some recent work to show friends. She asked questions like . . . . Why did you photograph this? Did you know that this was going to be in the photograph? What are thinking about when you are making photographs? I think some artist are really good at answering questions like this. I can give an answer that talks about the form, the light, the color or whatever, but that doesn't answer the question except in art speak for the observer.

Andy Ilachinsky in his blog Tao of Photography writes about these very questions in the entry, Experiential "Flow" in Photography.  He writes, "I am often asked, 'What do you think about when you do photography?' To which I typically respond with something like, 'the less the better'."

My answer to my friend was that actually I was just responding on an emotional level. Yes, sometimes I may make a number of images of the same thing but it is about an emotional conversation with the object. My rather feeble explanation included something about how you are not really thinking about every move you make when driving a car, it is just happening and you are responding. Ilachinsky's explanation about being the "Flow" is a much more thoughtful essay about the process.