Why?

Why am I Taking these Photographs?

This was the title of an essay by Steve Zigler that I read on Alain Briot's website Beautiful-Landscape.com. And it got me thinking.
Why am I taking all these photographs?

Steve Zigler opens his essay withe the following paragraph:

Why am I taking these photographs? Like all photographers I suppose, I frequently ask myself this question. And I frequently struggle for an answer. "I am taking these pictures to capture the beauty of nature," is probably my most common thought. "I am taking these pictures to freeze a moment in time" is another one of my favorites. Sometimes out of frustration due to the lack of a suitable answer, I simply say to myself, "Because!". Such a simple question shouldn't be so complicated to answer.

And as I read on to his conclusion I found that what he wrote resonates well with many of my own reasons for why I make my images and the reason why it's important to me to make these images.

Because!

I am taking these pictures because it matters to me that these places exists. These pictures are not so much about me. They are about nature and wilderness and our environment. They are about the precious places where we go to find peace and inspiration. They are about all the places we must protect and remember.

They are about reminding people about the nature and wilderness that still exists where it's good to be human, and that we must protect the wilderness and the planets biodiversity before it's to late.

It's simply about our environment and all the places where it's good to just be.

Ronny A. Nilsen
Norway, April 2008

Ram in sunset.

Three Rivers, New Mexico, USA / December 2007

Man and child

New Mexico, USA / December 2007