The Photographer's Eye
What do photographs look like? Why do they look that way? Photography describes things. It evolves with us as we evolve and shows us how we have evolved. Photography is easy and cheap and can describe anything. Photography was created with science and art and yet it has turn into its own art form which many professions use.
The Thing Itself
Photography deals with the actual. If this fact is not accepted, photography will defeat you. The photographer has to learn the world and recognize its best works and moments. Photographs are also a different thing from reality no matter how convincing. The subject and the image are not the same thing, even if they may seem so. The public believed that photographs couldn't lie.
"The nineteenth century began by believing that what was reasonable was true and it would end up by believing that what it saw a photograph of was true"
The Detail
Photographers are tied to the facts of things. They must force the facts to tell the truth, and you can't manipulate the truth. The photographer can't assemble these clues in a coherent matter, they can only isolate the fragment. Photographs can not be read as stories but they are read as symbols. The Great War photographer Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough you're not close enough."
The Frame
When photography was first created, photographs were printed the same size. At this time, enlarging was impractical and the photographer should not change their mind in the dark room. The idea of cropping interested painters in the latter nineteenth century. "The central act of photography, the act of choosing and eliminating, forces a concentration on the picture edge- the line that separates in from out- and on the shapes that are created from it"
Time
There is no such thing as an instantaneous photograph. All photographs have time exposures whether its long or short. In the past, the time to receive a photograph you had taken took a lot longer than it does in this day and age. You had to take the photo and then you would have to get the film developed in a shop or a dark room. If the subject moved, it would result in a interesting photograph like a dog with two heads. Over time, photographic materials have become more sensitive and faster where you can receive your photograph in a few seconds. Photography alludes to the past and the future as they exist in the present.
Vantage Point
Little is said about the obscurity of photographs. Photography has taught us to see from unexpected vantage points. Photography has an ability to challenge and reject our notion of reality. An artist is a man who seeks new structures in which to order and simplify his sense of reality of life. The history of photography has been more of a growth than a journey. Photography was born whole. It is in our progressive discovery of it that its history lies.