A view of one of the mountains in the Annapurna Range, Himalayas, Nepal. 1997

Back in 1990, guitarist and composer Steve Vai released an instrumental rock album with the title “Passion and Warfare”. I don’t know why he decided on Passion and Warfare for the title, but to me, this is an album born out of his passion. It’s this passion that causes him to – in his own words – become obsessed with playing the guitar, as well as to put in the hours and hours of necessary work so as to master it. I get the feeling that creating the album he wanted was more important to him than creating an album that would sell. So what’s all that got to do with photography?

Well, in some ways, a similar thing could be said about photography, or any creative endeavor for that matter. It’s our passion, our obsession that leads us to spend hours learning all the technical aspects. Hours learning either darkroom techniques or digital workflow and post-processing. Hours pouring over books and websites, studying other photographers work, aping them in order to learn, and hoping to move past that mimicry as we develop our own style. It’s a well-trodden path that millions of photographers have taken and millions more probably will take. We become obsessed about our art to the point where it takes up all our thoughts. Richard Avedon famously said

If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up

I’m sure a lot of us can relate to that and, with the exception of the few who need to produce particular work to satisfy art directors and corporate executives, we always have complete freedom to shoot what we want, when we want. For those of you who never plan to try and make a living off photography, that is one of the greatest freedoms you have – the ability to create works of art simply for their own sake. For those making a living from photography, you may need to work a little more to achieve this but by no means is it out of your grasp.

When we follow our passion we are truly alive. Are you alive?