Encourage and discourage

Last Friday's afternoon I was strolling around the campus on a photographing session with one of my good friend from Vietnam named Hung. He is three years younger than I am. The kid possessed a warm and interesting character; he is seemingly extrovert but at the same time extremely quiet, humble, and devoted when talking about photography. Very likable guy overall. What gave me the biggest surprise was that Hung had been hanging out with photography for only three years and yet already proved to be so mature in both the techniques and psychology of the job. He was so knowledgeable about the tiny light box and the mindset required to harvest a good picture out of every situation.

He spoke to me about how he came to show interest in photography and the obstacles his parents set up to isolate him from the camera. Hung's parents did not want him to take on photograph, and they made every attempts to let him know that. This is quite understandable since in my country, photographers are mostly associated with penniless, leisured and slovenly guys travelling around the country to seek for beautiful shots that are not quite convertible into meals. It is an unsecured future. So his mom took away his sophisticated DSLR camera and strictly regulated his association with photography clubs or fellow photographers. I suppose her purpose was to keep anything photography out of Hung's sight and with time, he would forget it. Yet it was kinda counter-productive. Out of the passion for photography and the resistance to his parents' arbitrary suppress, Hung skipped his breakfast for months and saved enough money to purchase an ancient 35mm film camera (if you are not familiar with the name, it's the sort of camera that existed before the easy-handy-dandy digital era and demanded a dark room with gallons of chemical to develop the film into pictures.) Since the film camera did not have light meters and all the convenient automatic features of a digital one, Hung had to go back and study every basic stuff there was about light, photograph development, ISO, apertures, shutter speed ... you get the idea. The more his parents impeded him, the more he grew resolved and insistent. As a result, the more he knew, mastered, and the more he loved photography.

Had Hung's parents not forbidden him to take on his new-born passion for photograph at the first gear, would he has learnt as much as he has now? Or with his parents' consent, would he fall into the tempting paths of countless guys out there with that odious pseudo-interest, ones who might buy huge, expensive cameras with the false assumption that good cameras make good cameramen, then the next day get fed up with simply pushing a numb button a thousand times with minimal thinking investment backed up by a cursory mindset. It is not just about the conditions from themselves, it is also about their environment that matters.

Encourage and discourage, it seems, are not much far away from the same word. Sometimes, I even wonder if only Romeo and Juliet are not a star-crossed couple and their families had never been in such a feud, how long their days of romance would last?