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On Reality in Photography
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One might argue that all photography represents reality. After all, it is just the reflected light captured in the fraction of a moment. But is this really true? And if it is true, where is the art in it? Photographs are not created in an instant. They are the result of a number of activities - constructing the scene, composition (framing), exposure settings and the pressing of the shutter release button, not to mention the various tasks that need to be performed after the actual exposure. The photographer has a choice in each of these steps. He decides what is real at the moment of capture. This reality may differ from the reality when the finished photograph is viewed. The question arises: which aspect of a photograph is real? The photograph itself (the piece of material on which it is represented) or what it depicts? When I first set out to use photography as a way of expressing myself, reality was an important issue. I wanted my photographs to be authentic and not altered in any way. In photography, there is always a tiny scratch that marks a negative or a spec of dust on the enlarger lens (or nowadays on the image sensor), which are visible in its print. Conventionally, this is perceived as a flaw and dealt with by way of manual or digital retouching. My answer then was to leave all the tiny scratches and dustmarks on the negatives so that they would show on my prints. |
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