The Photographless Photographer

For the past few years I've been interested in an aspect of photography that has fascinated photographers since its inception. Photographing the Invisible. The Unphotographable. There are shows and books on the subject. From attempting to capture ghosts on film to trying to represent Jesus. I am working on putting together a class on the subject. Then there is the Photographless Photographer. This is something completely different. This is me. My tax form says I'm a photographer but I'm not quite sure about that anymore. Recently I went on a whale site seeing trip and I was the only person on the boat that didn't take any pictures as well as the only photographer on board. But I didn't want to put a camera or a phone in between me and my experience just so that I could experience it again later. Those pictures of the whales will be in my head forever. There is a title some artists give themselves that most photographers can't stand. It's when someone calls themselves "an artist who uses photography." It usually applies to someone who wasn't formally trained in photography but who uses the medium as their primary form of expression. I have to admit that this type of work is sometimes refreshing because the individual is not caught up relying on unspoken rules that photographers abide by. Maybe I should start calling myself "a photographer who uses art." I used to leave my images untitled. I wanted to leave them open to interpretation. Eventually I started titling works to direct the viewer and in my last show the title of each work ended up being half of the piece. One could not exist without the other. I wondered if eventually the work would go away and only the words would be left and, sure enough, recently I started writing a book. It's fiction. I see the characters and events in my mind's eye. If someone read it they would have their own. These are pictures I don't have to print, or frame, or store. Other people can't copy them. They float around like images on the internet but nobody else gets to see them.