On What I Want My Photographs to Do and Impact

As some who know me may be aware I am a serious photographer and have been for many years. At this point I could probably be classified as semi-professional. I sell at least a few images on a stock site (www.shutterstock.com/g/alm3photo) almost every day and I manage to sell some mounted and framed images (www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com) as well. Photographs can elicit all sorts of responses. And, while I take my share of images that mix color and composition to provoke a sense of well-being and happiness, some of what I consider my best work impacts viewers on the dark and sometimes a disturbing side of life. What I’m trying to achieve is impact – a sense that somehow I’ve stirred a viewer’s emotions.

A recent series of photos I’ve just completed were shot at the World War II Veterans’ Memorial in Washington DC. The memorial is situated between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the reflecting pool. The site boasts a series of overwhelming tailored marble or granite masses accentuated with American flags around its perimeter. In the center is a lighted pool with fountains gushing high into the air. Other smaller fountains lie at the Atlantic and Pacific theatre ends providing bands of cascading water from one collecting pool to another ultimately emptying into the central pool. Underneath lighting highlights the water flow at dusk making the bands dance. The two days that I shot at the monument were very close to Veterans Day and hence the flags there, and around the Washington Monument were all at half-staff. There were many vets, many I assume, seeing the memorial in person for the first time in their lives. Some walked, some used canes or walkers and others were in wheelchairs being pushed along by family members. Their caps announced their units and service branch. They seemed as old as the vets themselves.

It is said that World War II veterans rarely talk about their experience in the war. Some of the memories are probably too painful even 60 years later. Others probably say that the war had to be fought – they enlisted, did what had to be done and came home and moved on with the rest of their lives. Most asked little in return for their heroic service to the country. Many did not return and there seemed to be a sense of this when you looked at the vets faces – grateful that a memorial to their service had finally been erected but also sad about their sacrifice and loss of friends.

As you walked around the monument the presence of all these vets made an impact on you. You felt that their being there was important. The stunning architecture of the memorial was made even more stunning by the vets themselves, their families and other visitors. Capturing these scenes as images and making the viewer understand honor, courage, dedication, sorrow and happiness were what I hoped my pictures would convey – the impact was palpable. That’s what I try to capture – that’s what photographs should do. They should make a difference, an impact, in what you’re looking at. I hope I succeeded. That’s what photographs should do.