I watched the documentary WarPhotographer tonight. The movie is about freelance photographer James Nachtwey who is one of the preeminent documentary photographers on the planet. It’s the second time I’ve watched it and it always makes me want to be a better photographer. To take photos that matter. To do something with my life that ‘matters’.

What I wonder about though is why. Why do I–why do we–have this compulsion to do something that ‘matters’? Why am I not content to take photos of trees and mountains? Why am I not content to work a desk job? Why do I want to feel like I’m living my life working toward a goal or a higher purpose that is outside of myself?

I think it is easy to confuse this notion with calling. I’m not talking about what work I feel called to do–I think calling is pretty specific–a specific career or geographic calling. I have no idea what I’m called to do. But I know I want to, no, need to do something that matters.

When I started writing this post I wanted to bring it around to some happy little platitude. Some little theological nugget about God and Jesus. Some answer I can give that makes sense of this little part of what it means to live. The best I can do this a cliche from Nachtwey himself, ‘If we don’t, who will?’

Filed under: life, photography by Jonathan