Reflections From The Street: Aaron

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Hello Everyone,

Let me start by introducing myself, my name is Aaron - aaroffy, and Khuram - MARX77 has been asking me for a bit to write a regular journal here on TheStreetFactor. I am not sure where this journal will go but I intend to reflect on different aspects of street photography/photography and attempt to find connections to our daily lives. I hope you will find it interesting and enjoy it. As always I welcome comments. Not only do I love the dialogue but I find that my inspiration for future posts always come from this dialogue.

I thought that today would be as good as any to start at the beginning. Before any street photographer can begin their relentless search of that next decisive moment they had to have their inaugural journey to the camera; here is the story of mine:

I wish I could tell you a romantic story like the ones you hear from so many of the great photographers; where I grew up in a dark room and was taking pictures before I could walk but I can't. I started photography as simply a means to kill time.

I have had the fortunate/unfortunate pleasure of battling with an aggressive form of blood cancer the past 2 years. After my initial month of staying in the hospital to receive and recover from chemotherapy I was discharged into the real world. The initial days of freedom are spent in solitude (often times forced due to restrictions on when and where you can go). As the weather warmed a bit, I had to get out of the apartment for two reasons; I was going crazy from being trapped in a small place and I needed to start exercising to begin trying to build back up my body.

In the beginning I was only able to go down the elevator, walk to the corner (a whole 100m) and then get back to the apartment before I had lost all energy. But even those few minutes outside, not matter how miniscule, were envigorating. After living in a hospital for 6 weeks, continuously attached to a machine not knowing if I would live or die, the ability to walk outside and breathe fresh air was nothing short of life changing.

I wasn't just envigorated by the fresh air though, I went into sensory overload. Everything I smelt, heard, and saw seemed so much more vivid to me; everything around me was overflowing with life.
I began to realize that as we grow up and routine becomes more and more a part of our lives, our perception of the abundance of life around us becomes dulled increasingly with the passing of each day.

Look at a newborn baby as they look around at their new world. Their eyes are full of wonderment and curiosity as they take in all the wonderful sights, sounds, and smells of their new world. Now compare that to walking around downtown in a big city. Everyone is walking around with blinders on, completely oblivious to everything around them.

One morning I was out taking pictures in Toronto before an appointment and I wanted to test just how oblivious and self absorbed people really were. I decided to say "Good Morning" to every person I walked by for an hour. In that whole time less than 10 people acknowledged me with a Good Morning back.

I am not here to rant about how oblivious people are to their surroundings I more just brought it up to illustrate how as we continue to grow older, somewhere along the way we no longer pay attention to everything around us.

After my cancer diagnosis I found myself reverting back to that infant state of wonderment. It was simply refreshing.
As time passed and my increased strength enabled me to venture past the corner, something terrible happened, my vivid sensory overload was beginning to fade.

Thankfully this didn't last long and I decided to take action into my own hands. It was time for me to learn a new hobby. I decided that maybe I should give photography a try; it was a cost effective way for me to continue to get low impact exercise and fresh air. Also, it was something I could do independently. On a whim I bought my first camera, a Nikon D5000, not knowing if I would take to this new hobby.

When the camera finally arrived in the mail, I took it out for its first test spin. I don't think I ended up with any great photos but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Additionally, I found my senses were beginning to notice everything around them again. I was hooked. I got home, downloaded the images I took, and began searching voraciously for anything I could read on photography to begin learning how to improve.

That was over two years ago and I am so thankful I found my way to camera. It has provided me with countless hours of pleasure and helped fill the void of keeping my brain sharp and thinking.

How did your journey to the camera take place?
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cedrus's avatar
That was a great story. Well maybe great isn't the right qualifier given the context, but you get my drift :)