water water everywhere

water water everywhere, originally uploaded by jamesburden.

I have something to share with you. 12 years ago my father went missing. He had been suffering with depression for many many years and was last seen running into a stormy winter sea. My world caved in. Last week my four-year-old son jumped into the swimming pool without any help. My heart burst with pride.

I have a love-hate relationship with water. Sometimes I don’t know what to feel about this amazing, ubiquitous, calm yet tempestuous, life-giving/life-taking, substance that forms so much of what we are. Sometimes I marvel at its wildness and beauty. Sometimes I shudder at its malevolence. I’m constantly drawn to capture something of its essence.

A few people have asked me recently for my thoughts on what it means to make photos. Many people will tell you that photography is all about light. And it is. But I believe there is something more. I believe that photography is all about emotion.

So if you’re looking for inspiration, find something you feel emotional about. Find something that makes you pause in awe, weep with gratitude, shiver with anticipation, tremble with anger. Find something that creates such emotion in you that you can’t swallow because of the lump in your throat. Then is the time to raise the camera to your eye and make that photograph.