Fat People and Buff People and The Gym
So a couple days ago i was standing in the gym taking a break from “the action” (by that i mean pretending to be physically fit so i feel better about myself). As i looked around the gym i began to realize how absurd we are. Seriously, we are an absurd people. I’m not sure if it’s just an American thing (though from what i can tell, that isn’t far from the truth) or if it’s just a human thing.
Let’s step back for a moment though. Picture yourself, Mr. and Mrs. caveman trying to lead a normal life. You found a wonderful cave close to all the clean brooks in the area and plenty of animals to hunt and eat. In fact, it’s about that time again, time to go find something to eat. That’s pretty much all you do, your life revolves around finding food. Or, if we want to be cynical i suppose, we can picture ourselves as some starving children in a small neglected 3rd world country.
Now lets get back to the gym. It’s about 5:30 and the vast majority of these people have spent the day at work and really just want to get home, have some dinner, and watch last weeks Pickup Artist (seriously though, check it out…it’s so ridiculous it’s awesome!). But before they can do that, they gotta get their fat asses over to the health club and run in place for 45 minuets to burn off the 950 calories they ate for lunch. I mean, i do it too, don’t get me wrong. But how absurd.
Everyone stands there in their own world running in place. Expending energy because there is too much of it. There was a time in our history, and there are places today, where people try their best not to expend unnecessary energy. Yet here we are dedicating probably 5 hours of our week to burning off energy that we didn’t need.
So what right? Nothing new is it? Well, i realized that this is so absurd that if photographed properly, this would make an excellent photo essay. It would be both funny and sad. It would also be very visual. Most of all, it would have a story. It has, in fact, all the elements of a great photograph. This of course is all very personal. I tend to enjoy making people laugh, and i tend to enjoy proving a point. It’s wonderful if i can do both at the same time.
My point is merely this: As a photographer, you must always be watching and observing the world around you. It doesn’t really matter what type of photography you enjoy most. Perhaps it is sports, perhaps it is people, perhaps it is animals. Again, it does not matter. What matters is that you always have a keen eye. You must always be on the hunt for the next great story because within that story is a great photograph (hopefully many photographs).
