Pictures that Make You Smile

“We can also create images in abandon, in random succession, without need, without rules or guidelines, without limit…” – K Madhavan Pillai

There are many grand reasons to do photography. We can capture images that inspire wonder and awe, or shock masses into awakenings. We can chronicle lives and events with greater depth. We can document in larger quantities and in greater detail than ever before.

We can scrutinise microcosms and record from the frontiers of space. We can skirt the fringes of reason and then go beyond. We can develop heady concepts into fine works of art that sell or are not meant to be sold. We can also create images in abandon, in random succession, without need, without rules or guidelines, without limit, and without a second thought.

Somehow, at this point, I find that the most meaningful rationale to do photography is to put a smile on the face of someone special to me, thirty years from now. However much I think about it, that smile will be worth a lot more than any investment that I make today.

Albert Einstein, the man who gave the world its foundations for the study of physics, is famous to me for something he had once said—“A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. This is why I think a photograph can be kind.” In our current environment of billions of images floating on social networks, I cannot think of a more significant reason to make a picture.

This article originally appeared in the August 2014 issue of Better Photography.