Recently I posed a question to the people who watch *PhotoLust. It was a short question, a simple question and a question with a million possible answers. I asked them Why do you take photographs?

And they answered. 'They' are amateurs, professionals, stockers, members, subscribers and seniors. They shoot on digital and film. They are teenagers and college students and adults. They are inspired and inspirational. They are artists...and this is what they said.







i take photos because i enjoy it. i do horror because i like to push the boundaries and create illusions, and i take pics of nature and other assorted things because i think there is much beauty in nature. i'll sound like a hippy if i go on about how i can stare for ages at clouds and stuff, but sometimes the only things worth living for are the simplest.
_{- `Xerces}

I have never truely been able to capture what I am trying to through my drawings, and my writing, but when I discovered Photography it opened my eyes to the beauty around me. Everyday things, regular people and at the same time allows me to admit my own light, my own art into it. It seems like everything is endless with photography, there are no limits no end to my creativity. I walk around everyday and I feel like I see the world through the lens of a camera.
_{- ~jennifer-mary}

I take photos for various reasons - sometimes I just like to make images I find pleasing, but other times I make images for specific projects, which I use and manipulate in different ways.
_{- ~undividual}

I take photos because its something I love and look forward to doing everyday I get the chance. I love being able to stalk creatures in the grass and help people admire the beauty of nature.
_{- `feetpeet}

Everything looks better if I look at it with a lens to my face.
I can make things more beautiful than real life.
And I can make things the subject that we wouldn't normally stare at.
_{- ~Lyfers}



I take photographs because it brings me peace, I live my happiest moments with a camera in my hand and I love that. I enjoy capturing the beauty that is around us everyday that we sometimes take for granted.
_{- *Xxevil-penguinxX}

Because the possibilities are endless. There are so many avenues to explore, whether using digital or film, and to have moments, whether created or natural, captured in time forever is a wonderful thing. Photography is how we freeze time.
_{- *BlackCarrionRose}

I do it because it's the only reasonable and safe way to show love and appreciation for so many women at the same time.
I do it because I spent a large part of my artistic life pursuing social issues, and now is the time to dwell in pure beauty and emotion as another way to rebel against the status quo.
I do it because it's the most fun I can have with my clothes on.
I need to do it, it's that or going berserk and running the streets dressed as Dracula and spraying people with a fire extinguisher.
I like the photos I take, and nobody else is taking them, so in order to see them I have to take them first.
_{- *nocturno}

Photography opens a whole new world, of either realism or something completely from your own imagination..it's a solid way of making yourself heard by you taking a strong enough photo to making people react, whatever that reaction is, it gets them thinking...
It's a fantastic way to express yourself- it gives you the image, and allows others to take it how they want, or it allows you to express yourself in a way that only you might understand and is personal to you.
It also shows your own personal journey and what you've learned your your inspirations from others, you can see by looking at the first photograph one ever took to what their most recent photograph is, and it shows how much they've grown.
It's beautiful and wonderful that man has created something that can be so personal and yet so explanatory at the same time.
_{- ~Sparkmuffin}

There is a certain sense of power and control when I lock a lens in place, the weight of the camera, holding my breath and then slowly squeezing the shutter button...and the reassuring sound of the shutter....
Every time i look at a photograph i took i remember the moment..... it (usually) takes a split second... but the memories last forever.
Its also a form of personal expression.
_{- ~manicphantom}



Since I live alone and spend almost all my time alone, I take photographs to share what I see on my adventures with people online since there is no one to share it with in the outerweb.
_{Also quoted, from source unknown...}one can be happy, but it takes two to be glad
_{- =eskimoblueboy}

I take photographs because it relaxes me and gives me a new perspective of the world around me. Now whenever I leave the house, I see beauty and a great photo in things I ignored before.
_{- ~freaKinfritter}

Simple: I like to transmite a bit of my own way of seeing things. Don't matter if it professional or amateur. Poetry of Light and Shade is one of the most wonderful things in the world.
_{- ~Thalassy}

Because I can.
_{- `pendlestock}

I like to show those around me the things I see in the world and how I see them.
_{- =kurokimashin}



I started photographing because I wanted to "freeze" the world. Using the camera's shutter time you can decide which time period you want to capture on a static medium. It just gives a cool effect.
And besides that... it is quite relaxing to take photo's. Just concentrate on the subject, set your aperture and shutter and shoot. And it's quite rewarding if the photo works out just fine.
_{- ~NightSheep}

There are a lot of things in the world to see. Why not take pictures of them?
_{- ~bulloney}

I take photographs because I simply can't stop..Its a bit of an obsession.
_{- *agonybliss}

It is my mental floss! Really, truly ... there's something about it and has been since I was nine or ten years old ... I love to shoot. I do it because it brings me joy and ... once in awhile ... brings someone else joy, too.
_{- :devcinthiastimson}

The eyes are the single lens reflex mirrors of the soul.
_{- *varx44}



Simply put... To satisfy my artistic urges.
_{- =neolestat}

Simply put, I love taking photos because I enjoy expressing a variety of ideas in unique ways.
_{- =thetopcrusader}

Photography was sort of bred into me. My father's a photographer, as is my sister. I always had an interest in it, and turned out I had an eye for it too. I take photographs to express myself, to remember something, and sometimes just because I can. I got my first camera when I was 8, I believe, and I've just kept going from there.
_{- ~NanamiGenji}

It's fun! Nothing will ever come out the same, and it feels great to hear somebody say "wow! that's incredible!"
_{- :devisaacster39}

I take photos because I love to and it allows me to appreciate what is going on around me.
_{- *Waterfallout}



It's a creative outlet. My day job doesn't allow for creativity, and my band is on hiatus. I can't draw or paint - so it's the only way that I know that's half-decent in which I can express myself a little bit.
_{- *HobbleSkirt}

Narrative can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us.
_{- *GrayDay quoting Susan Sontag}

I take photo's because it's a great way to relax. It's can be a zen-like experience only focusing on the subject on a shot.
_{- *5thRaven}

I do it for reference, texture stock and when I do portraits. So mostly just work stuff. I shoot other things just as a hobby though. I've had my eye on a Lieca M8 but that damned range-finder is too expensive for my blood right now.
_{- ~evilcanofjoy}

I take photographs so I can show other people what I see with my own eyes. I like seeing things in different ways through a lens. I like taking photos to capture certain things and certain ideas that I have.
_{- ~rainboo}



Because I have on more than one occasion heard people say that photography is a stale and dying art because you can only picture what you see. I want to prove them wrong and show them what they never imagined.
_{- ~catsagecat}

Getting a camera opened my eyes to the beauty that's around me. When I'm old I want to look back on the pictures I took and remember how I felt, and how much I've changed!
_{- `dudewithbraces}

Its been my greatest passion something that has always attracted me... how you can tell a complete story through a single picture really inspires me, and mastering it has been my greatest desire...
_{- =fahap}

A photograph can freeze a moment and keep it with you for ages, while that moment can get forgotten in your head. I always thought it was something very cool, or even magical. That is why I take photos. Because every picture you take freezes a moment in time.
_{- ~spegi}

photos can capture a moment in the way only a memory can.
_{- *the--end}



So really I am a bit of a creative, I cant do poetry, lyrics, draw or sing, so photography is my way of self expression, some like it some don't. If you like it, great, if you don't, who cares, because I do like it.
I have never picked up a camera "in anger" (with the sole intention of making money if you didn't understand the anger bit) my photography is both mundane everyday stuff that is popular strong portfolio stock, some is fairly creative and in some cases quite original, I like to take something ordinary and do something different with it, I also like to experiment and find the line between possible and impossible with the equipment, like man (or woman if you are one) Vs machine. I am limited only by my capabilities, equipment and imagination.
_{- *Simon-P}

I took a picture that was somewhat good, decided it was good, then ran with it and developed skills that made that first picture a sort ofself-fulfilling prophecy.
I believed in myself, and as it turns out I actually DID have some sense of composition locked in this head of mine. How about that shit?
_{- =CleverConveyence}

Creating art is my ideal process of catharsis. To cleanse and express what is on my mind, sometimes literally and sometimes at a complete tangent. My art defines me, what I do and who I am, and also why I exist.
_{- ~gothiceye}

have you ever tried to talk about something you don't really like? how much did it take till you stopped? 2 minutes? less?
have you ever tried to talk about something you love? have you ever stopped? have you ever looked at the way your eyes shine, when you talk about it? can you imagine a world without that 'thing' you like doing so much? your best dream, what was it about? your greatest wish, what is it about? imagine yourself in the future. what do you see yourself doing? i know what i'm dreaming/hoping about. it's photography. it's all those things i mentioned above and much more!it's feelings on a sheet of paper, opinions, ways of perception and more than that...it's you! in one word...it's love, only called differently. some might find what i just wrote a bit strange. but some...they will definitely understand.
_{- ~Gremlina}



i take photos because i enjoy doing it.
it's my zen moment at the end of every day.
it's my addiction.
_{- *jierumi}

After a year in Iraq, coming home and finding out the woman I loved dearly was pregnant with someone else's baby.. I had to adjust without being destructive, Photography was my therapy.
_{- *WrongState}

I take photos to tell you what I think of this world and it's creations, the people, including me, through the essence of photography. Even one sencetence is enough but to me imagery and visual properties is needed to finish that sencetence...and a sencetence is just too boring.
_{- ~spinning-rooster}

Because the world is truly beautiful, and not enough people see it as such.
I used to think that I looked horrible in every picture because I was... me. I had low self-esteem, because I used to think, "Is this really how people see me?" And then I started to notice other people, and how nice they looked. At first, this depressed me a little bit, because I thought I was an ugly person in a sea of flawless faces. But then I realized that they were thinking the same thoughts.
And so, I resolved to make them look good. Through this, I decided, I would not only raise their self-esteem, but also my own, since I place myself in the shoes of every person I photograph.
_{- ~asteria24}





The thumbs in this news article have come from the artists who answered the question. If you like what you see, drop by their galleries and have a closer look. Enjoy!



_{`RockstarVanity @ *PhotoLust [the interactive photography resource]}