Photography: The greatest truth and the greatest lie!
A picture paints a thousand words, but should we believe those words?
My train of thought for this post came about after seeing a documentary photo set regarding a group of people who frequented a bar and how they interacted. The photographs were shot on film using natural light and show emotional snapshots of their lives at the bar. However, it was not the quality of the photography that made me think, it was the reality of the images and the point of taking them.
There are many aspects to photography, photojournalism, documentary, glamour, art. Each has different goals but they all use the same medium, the photograph.
The photograph was traditionally seen as a fixed image of something that happened, something tangible, immutable and believable. However, as technology has moved on this is no longer true. It is now possible to fake practically anything using digital manipulation with almost no way to tell that the photograph was manipulated. Even without digital technology it is pretty simple to contrive just about anything.
Thus we must question those photographs that seek to depict some occurrence as to whether it is a true record or a staged and manipulated depiction.
If we see a heart rendering picture of a beggar in a ditch with his hand held out, can we trust that it is real or staged? If we see an old woman in poverty, is it real, is she truly in poverty or is it simply a creation to get an emotional response?
If the photograph we see generates a response that changes the way we view the world does it matter if the photograph is real or contrived?
If the photograph of the beggar is staged, but causes you to donate to world famine, does it matter?
If the glamour models on the magazine cover are so heavily manipulated that they are no longer real, does it matter?
Ultimately, I believe, that the purpose of photography is to create an emotional response in the viewer. If a photographer achieves the response they want then they have succeeded.
The photograph is a way to communicate. It can communicate absolute reality, it can communicate the photographer’s view of reality, or ultimately it can communicate simply an idea that the photographer wants to express. Each of these is a valid objective but as the viewer we should be aware that no matter how real the images feel, how convincing the story that is told, it is still only an image, a report, a depiction of what the photographer wants you to see and ultimately how they want you to respond emotionally. It may not be absolute reality!
This is Lynx looking as beautiful as ever.
My train of thought for this post came about after seeing a documentary photo set regarding a group of people who frequented a bar and how they interacted. The photographs were shot on film using natural light and show emotional snapshots of their lives at the bar. However, it was not the quality of the photography that made me think, it was the reality of the images and the point of taking them.
There are many aspects to photography, photojournalism, documentary, glamour, art. Each has different goals but they all use the same medium, the photograph.
The photograph was traditionally seen as a fixed image of something that happened, something tangible, immutable and believable. However, as technology has moved on this is no longer true. It is now possible to fake practically anything using digital manipulation with almost no way to tell that the photograph was manipulated. Even without digital technology it is pretty simple to contrive just about anything.
Thus we must question those photographs that seek to depict some occurrence as to whether it is a true record or a staged and manipulated depiction.
If we see a heart rendering picture of a beggar in a ditch with his hand held out, can we trust that it is real or staged? If we see an old woman in poverty, is it real, is she truly in poverty or is it simply a creation to get an emotional response?
If the photograph we see generates a response that changes the way we view the world does it matter if the photograph is real or contrived?
If the photograph of the beggar is staged, but causes you to donate to world famine, does it matter?
If the glamour models on the magazine cover are so heavily manipulated that they are no longer real, does it matter?
Ultimately, I believe, that the purpose of photography is to create an emotional response in the viewer. If a photographer achieves the response they want then they have succeeded.
The photograph is a way to communicate. It can communicate absolute reality, it can communicate the photographer’s view of reality, or ultimately it can communicate simply an idea that the photographer wants to express. Each of these is a valid objective but as the viewer we should be aware that no matter how real the images feel, how convincing the story that is told, it is still only an image, a report, a depiction of what the photographer wants you to see and ultimately how they want you to respond emotionally. It may not be absolute reality!
This is Lynx looking as beautiful as ever.
posted by Richard at 10:15 AM
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