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Friday, September 14, 2012

The photograph is not the subject

I am reading The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowsi. The preface is an essay that sounds like something I could have written, if I were a better writer! It hits many of the same points I make here. Truthfully, it makes me wonder if I read this years ago, and am simply lifting all these ideas from Mr. Szarkowsi. Well, worse places to steal ideas from, that's for sure.

A point he makes that struck me, though, is this: viewers tend to think that a photograph of a thing is a true and accurate representation of the thing. This is a more specific version of the idea that viewers tend to think that photographs represent some objective truth.

The dedicated reader of this blog will know that, of course, a photograph of a thing is frequently almost everything but a true and accurate representation of that thing.

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