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It is difficult to say when it happened and who was the first to try catching the light in dark caskets so that not only the light became their guest but also the fragment of the reality seen by it. We only know that in the beginning of the XIX century humans learnt a new magic — to preserve such fragments of the reality with the help of light-sensitive materials. The initiated into the sacrament of producing photographs got a huge power — a power to copy the elements of existence and thereby prolong their life and extend the space available to them, because such copies are portable; or a power to present the non-existent as the real — the authenticity of the photographed is provided by the materiality, tangibility and actuality of the picture.
A photographer is always a discoverer and a treasure-hunter. He explores, learns new things, finds something valuable for himself and for the others. It may be said that he masters the world by comprehending it and making it his. Having pushed the button a photographer takes the parts of a shared reality and the moments of other people's lives with him. For example, travel photos contain streets, houses, sights, charateristics of infrastructure, climate, terrain, flora and fauna, the identification marks, the distinguishing features of other places and in some cases the proof of their capture by the author of the pictures. The Eiffel Tower captured by you will become your personal Eiffel Tower, your personal Paris, your personal France, your personal Europe. If you are captured with the Eiffel Tower in the background then this will become the material evidence of your journey and your pleasant impressions, your you that is formed by impressions - inner and outer — every hour during the whole life — yours and theirs — willing and happenstance bystanders. A self portrait then serves as a means of studying oneself as well as a means of... gaining oneself. Because your appearance completely reveals itself to you only under certain conditions, remaining eternally caged by water expanses, glassed surfaces and visual impressions of other people. However a photofilm or a videofilm introduces you to you the way you could see yourself all the time if you were not you but your fellow human being.
Everything you photograph freezes and allows you to examine it more attentively and more bravely. That is why photographing a passerby without permission makes him or her more alarmed than the stare of a stranger: the camera lens directed at you means not only that a stranger is looking at you right now but also that he will be able to be looking at you afterwards and maybe other people will be also staring at you. A photograph gives you an opportunity to use the depicted objects at your pleasure, it simplifies the process of taking over the reality through its semiotization. A photograph may be a symbol of acquiring the things a person doesn't possess at the moment. Any piece of art you like is easily turned into a table showpiece: it just needs to be photographed. A dear person living in another town can always be visited by simply looking at the photos from your last meeting with him or her. The borderline between mastering and acquisition through photography is detected in the following way: mastering is "I want to study it, to take a closer look at it, to get some new knowledge" and acquisition is "I want to take it with me, to leave it for myself, to make it a part of me". Both the processes may be at work while one and the same picture is created.
Mastering with the help of photography may take one of the two forms: perceptive or compensative. The perceptive mastering is aimed at the development of one's own abilities, comprehension of being and satisfaction of one's aesthetic needs. It occurs when you hold the magic casket in your hands and play around with it, finding out how it works, watching what happens if you get certain primary conditions, add certain ingredients and photograph the result, comparing your concept of the object with its features in the shot. For the sake of curiosity. For the sake of playing.
The compensative mastering gives a shelter and a reason to a person experiencing the feeling of loss or defeat. This kind of mastering supplies the deficiency identified in another sphere, becomes a victory practice serving as a placebo, a rite, a means of sublimation or escapism. If you do not see any point in going to some place or event then take a camera with you and the point will appear. If you have quarrelled with somebody then shoot some photos and maybe you will suddenly realise how trivial the cause of the quarrel has been. Such application of photography may have a healing effect if one is able to review the real problem or immerse oneself in the creative side of the process. However, in case the creation of photos acts only as a kind of attention switching and does not change the author at all then the value of such occupation is minimal.
Whatever the photographer's motives are and whatever his concept of phography is it will always bring something new and interesting to a curious person. But to use all the potential of one's "chamber of secrets" (the word camera means "vaulted room" in Latin) one should approach it with wisdom and fantasy - an open heart and a genuine desire are also welcome as gifts and passwords.
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