I expect that in our formative years most of us have had some specific inspiration to whet our interest in photography.
For some of the lucky ones it may be a group trip to some museum or gallery to see a magnificant display of prints by Adams or Karsh. In my case it was probably the really BAD examples featured in the pages of Popular (or Modern) Photography, or even worse, U.S. Camera. Perhaps, as a budding teen-aged scientist I was actually more intrigued by the process than by the final product.
Eventually, I have traveled over much of the Western World, and enjoyed shows, both public and private, of many great photographs, and even managed to amass a nice personal collection of images (famous and otherwise). But while these may give great pleasure, they are not truly inspirational to get out and make some photographs for myself.
What really IS inspirational to me is watching the twice-a-year Sweeps Week local PBS screening of Ken Burns' "The Civil War!" Such magnificant images!
Man -- hour after hour of images which are not pretty pictures, but as a collection really mean something to the records of our civilization. It makes me want to grab a Speed Graphic or a Leica and go out there and do something truly worthwhile (photographically speaking).
A ridiculous thought, of course, (considering my age and infirmity), but it sure is nice to have this magnificant inspiration to automatically get my photography juices flowing, like a young Timothy O'Sullivan or William Henry Jackson.
I can still dream.
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