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Thread: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

  1. #1

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    Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    I just viewed the video about Vivian Maier, it showed that she was a major hoarder, this got me thinking... Is the actual act of "Taking a picture" a form of hoarding?
    Real cameras are measured in inches...
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  2. #2

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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    Quote Originally Posted by dsphotog View Post
    I just viewed the video about Vivian Maier, it showed that she was a major hoarder, this got me thinking... Is the actual act of "Taking a picture" a form of hoarding?
    I suppose it depends on how many pictures one takes and keeps. Taking a lot of pictures is not hoarding, but seems more like the crime of conversion to me - taking possession of something (image, likeness, soul) that is not the rightful property of the photographer. Maybe not culling ones negatives could be considered hoarding.

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    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    Quote Originally Posted by BrianShaw View Post
    I suppose it depends on how many pictures one takes and keeps. Taking a lot of pictures is not hoarding, but seems more like the crime of conversion to me - taking possession of something (image, likeness, soul) that is not the rightful property of the photographer. Maybe not culling ones negatives could be considered hoarding.
    With respect and with great interest, could you expand on that part of your statement, please?
    .

  4. #4

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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    Photography, no. Buying more and more equipment that you really do not need or use, yes.

  5. #5

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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    I don't think it is a form of hoarding, but there are obsessive-compulsive photographers and equipment gatherers. I wouldn't want to conflate "taking" a photograph with possession. Otherwise "taking a crap" would have highly unpleasant consequences. Nor do I believe that a photograph "captures" the "soul" of a person. At best, it conveys to the viewer, a momentary and relatively unambiguous sense of that person. A kind of two-dimensional place holder around which the mind can build a fictive construct based on their visual reading of mien, apparent context, and presumptions and prejudgments.

  6. #6
    multiplex
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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    i can see how it can be suggested that capturing moments on film is a form of hoarding, but that is what photographers do. and i agree wtih lecarp that
    often times photographers are not happy with the gear they have, they are always searching for a silver bullet, buying, and buying more "stuff"

  7. #7
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    Hoaders are people who keep everything regardless of utility, or in our case images memorable or of aesthetic value or not. If that is the condition then if we could look at the mountains of crap many of us, and almost certainly most of digital mavens store... Need I go on?

    I'm looking for any way I can re-purpose the miles of film I've wasted,
    ,

  8. #8
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    Hoarding memories, along with multi-layered experiences all the way from tripping the shutter to the drymount press, yes. Just plain hoarding... well, that's what my wife thinks!

  9. #9

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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    According to Wikipedia:

    "Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder, is a pattern of behavior that is characterized by excessive acquisition and an inability or unwillingness to discard large quantities of objects that cover the living areas of the home and cause significant distress or impairment."

    Some artists with exceptional creative abilities produced enough work to fill up entire galleries and museums but nobody's complaining about them.

    As with so many things artistic, a disorder - like beauty - is in the eye of the beholder.
    Last edited by Ken Lee; 4-May-2016 at 18:41.

  10. #10

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    Re: Is photography a form of "hoarding"?

    LOL, we use photography as cognitive behavioural therapy for people with the disorder at my hospital psych clinic. Susan Sontag wrote about the philosophy behind taking pictures: Brian Shaw is on the right track.

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