Ask not what a camera can do for you, but what you can do with a camera?

This is a message, and a wonderful act of generosity by Jim Mortram (published on his site here).

Today, as I rode up and waited for my Father who had an appointment with an eye specialist at the local hospital I was thinking how could I make best use of what I’ve often called “The human races best opportunity for a collective consciousness” the internet.

It struck me that when I began the path I have taken with photography, not only did I have no camera (As a material possession) but no practical information on how to use the one I borrowed. So over time I, in true autodidact tradition, taught myself, along the way being shared invaluable advice from the peers and professionals that I gradually came into greater contact with in the vast, ever expanding online community.

It was very hard for me to get an ‘in’ within those early days, how and whom to ask technical questions?, how to discover what a long form documentary project might be before even knowing such a concept existed?, it was comparable to staring at a huge marble stone and envisioning a sculpture that may lay concealed within, it’s taken time to chisel away, slowly revealing that which really seemed at first glance impossible.

Education, when boiled down to its essence, for me, is an act of sharing and in turn it’s byproduct is empowerment. Not all of us have the opportunity to study within the education system, so today, what I’ve decided to do, an echo of the way I shoot, within communities close to my home, is use that way of relating and engaging and expand it to comprise the second community in my life, that of our online society, and it really is OURS.

So, the 4th Saturday of every month I’ll be on Skype, for anyone that wants to posit any questions, for free one to one sessions, (First come first served etc!) for how can we charge for sharing?.

Your questions might be technically based, ‘How to get the best from your camera?’, project based, ‘How do I embark on a long form documentary series?’, portfolio based, about networking (A word I detest, it’s so cold, all it really means is being down to earth, treating people as you would wish to be treated and talking and listening, communicating, informing and sharing) or just a time to sound ideas out, or your fears, or your plans.

You can reach me from 1 pm – 5 pm (GMT) @ jim.mortram on Skype starting this Saturday, the 26th October.

Photography, contrary to some would have you believe, is not dead, far from it, for now, maybe more than ever and thanks to the internet photography has truly come of age.

We may live in a time, our time, right now, where a popular explosion of photography, fuelled by zero film costs, wifi and mobile devices has created an environment where swathes of us with access to imaging tools choose to be walking billboards for corporations, documenting and advertising their own life within capitalism, which in and of itself is quite an interesting mass documentary series, it’s certainly holding a mirror up to how infused and entwined the human race has become with product, unwitting sales and marketing tools for the corporations that with unseen wires continually make us dance to their tune.

Combatting this we have a front line, the trenches where photographers, documenters, writers, educators, artists are truly rallying together, forging communities, collectives and setting out to not merely document social issues and the repercussions of policy, of communities and the individual, intimate stories of peoples sharing testimony and first hand accounts of life in the now but to document with a mission to facilitate change. These acts of sharing, these peaceful bullets of truth inform, engage, educate, change perceptions, change the assumptions and stereotypes, erode the damage that’s so continuously perpetrated by editorial sensationalization, when all that’s really hankered for is ratings and advertising revenue.

I think of a non photographer now, looking at a camera, thinking to themselves “Why would I need that in my life?” and all I can hear are a billion arguments as to why would you NOT desire that?, such a tool, such a device for sharing, communicating, for carving out, crafting, enabling change.

As a tool photography is a best defense against all and anything we might witness, social injustice, life and lifestyle, all that transpires within our own lives and those lives within our communities, as both individuals and as part of a wider collective, a brother and sisterhood, both a defence and a defiance. A camera is our best tool for documenting, for sharing, for empowering, educating, for listening, for illuminating and enlightening.

Ask not what a camera can do for you, but what you can do with a camera.

With a camera we can tune in but not drop out, we can tune into and with those around us, focus in, focus into situations, the cries and calls and whispers, learn and listen from those that do truly the greatest act of good, those that share their stories with us and by making ourselves a conduit, becoming a link in an ever expanding train of connections be afforded the great honour of sharing that which has been so entrusted to us.