Photography : Passion or Syndrome

 Sometimes, I ask myself, Has shooting pictures has become a disease? If so, what are the hidden reasons and motives behind taking a zillions of pictures every time and everywhere by everyone.

These days it is very common to spot someone taking picture or posing. Whether it is eating place, railway station, red light on the highways, packed local buses, ice cream parlors, schools, colleges, Library, toilets, malls, pubs, cinemas, showrooms, parks  etc, everywhere we can find people taking pictures. 

What is the purpose of taking a picture? 

Is it really the one related with creating memories and to record the good times so that in times of crisis, we can have a look at them and satiate ourselves?

Is it really the one to create a good piece of art or depicting a beautiful subject?

Is it the way to express yourself through inanimate objects?

May be for the handful of people the above 2,3 purposes are the real purposes but what about the majority. Do we ever wonder to calculate the degree of correlation between the evolution of social media and sales of Digital camera? Neither I. But what I feel is that there is a strong degree of correlation between the two. This photography plague begun at the times when the Orkut becomes huge success as far as I remember. During that times, one cannot upload more than 12 pictures on the Orkut in his profile and from then begun the battle to choose your best 12’. People started taking pictures more and more and begun to upload them on Orkut and started expecting comments. Practice of uploading photos disseminated so much that those without Digital cameras or mobile phone with camera started scanning their old photos at the rate of 15 bucks per picture and begun to upload. Isn’t it strange but it is quite a natural phenomena. Isn’t it? But why is it natural?

Gradually with times, Orkut added the feature of creating albums and adding more pictures. Not only this, cost of the Digital cameras also start decreasing and it was the top most gadget on the list of everybody going to America. With digital cameras taking pictures becomes quite cheap and a sort of ‘one time’ investment stuff.

With the advent of Facebook where you can upload unlimited number of pictures and that too of high quality as far as I know as I have seen profiles with 2 thousands pictures in their album, practice of shooting pictures really got accentuated. People clicks pictures everywhere more in order to show their lifestyle, their tastes and their life rather than to create a memory of memorable days. Perhaps, their definition of memory is satisfied by this action. Some souls even go extra mile by uploading their Honeymoon pictures and the very personnel stuff. Some girls upload their picture in every short dress they have tried in their life. It is very hard not to get aroused especially for a ‘frustu’(actually, I mean frustrated) people like me. People pose dozens of times for the picture at the same location for a perfect pose which they value according to the likes and comments, they expected to get on Facebook. 

But the good thing associated with the photography is that it is giving a vent to our creativity. In today’s world when there is little time left for our hobbies, taking picture is the most sought out hobby which can be pursued anywhere. Not only this, Photography is the most common hobby among the youth, even those without any technical knowledge.