I am blessed to live in a time and place with
enough financial resources to explore my photography without much
hindrence. I often wonder what if I had been born into a third world country
with parents unable to encourage me in photography from a young age, where
women aren't encouraged to learn and advance, where money was very hard to
come by. Would I still have this yearning to shoot? Would I even know what
photography is? Where would my desire to create have taken me
then?
Lea,
I accept that the financial fluidity of the developed
world may bring easiness to explore expensive hobbies such as photography.
But, if there is an overriding desire to pursue any hobby, it can be done
successfully anywhere including so called "third world countries".
I was
born in India (a 3rd world country) in a family that can not be categorized as
rich, with successful use of camera since the age of 8-9 yrs. The first camera
that I ever saw and used in my life was a 4X5 field camera (originally made to
use glass negative plates, but later modified to use film) gifted to my
grandfather by a British officer (who then occupied India). That camera was
instrumental in starting my (as well as my Dad's when he was young) hobby in
photography. Later we ( our family) spent a lot of money, often diverting from
non-essential needs, to buy various 35mms including used M3
rangefinder.
The reason I am writing this is that I accept your thoughts
that hobbies can be eased by money; I just want to tell from my personal
experience that it often is not a limiting factor to continue if there is a
will and a vision. Also see following URL (to assert my notion that a vision
is more important that affluence)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4205049