Photographer: Shelly N Alexander (K=1451)
Seattle, WA USA 
About: I?ve owned a camera since 1999. Since then I?ve read every book I could purchase, borrow or steal in order to teach myself photography and I felt as if I had a handle on it all. It wasn?t until I had this hour long conversation with a former film industry employee, film buff and good friend of mine, that I was enlightened to a purpose. I have come to realize that everything I have learned in the past 6 years was useless until I understood the following: ?Every image has to tell a story?, even if the viewer doesn?t know the story behind the image they are led to wonder as they view. ?Every image has to have emotion?, like a word that can convey so many different emotions one picture must follow the cliché and be worth a thousand words. ?What is my purpose for taking this photo?, I had never been asked that question until I took a shitty photo and asked myself this question, now I ask the question before I press the shutter release. ?The purpose of every image is to capture the moment?, this statement encompasses all other aforementioned statements and my new purpose for what I do.
There are a lot of gorgeous models out there to photograph and enough photographers out there to take photos of them, resulting in images that viewers will move away from, forgetting them as an involuntary heart beat. The relationship of the model and photographer should ideally be that of a creative director to a creative actor/actress. Minds working together, feeding ideas, teaching and resulting in a very creative fluid captured moment that will stimulate.
I now view myself as a photographer recovering from being a pointless nostalgic that created technically sound, mundane snap shot keepsakes for the oblivious who called upon a mere talented whore to put out for limp mediocrity. With the help of the creatively talented and advice of the wise, I will no longer visually disturb this universe without purpose.
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