FYI ~ a speaking engagement
Monday, December 31, 2007 at 10:25AM 
Front page news
I'm working feverishly on my Jan. 2nd presentation to the Schenectady Photographic Society. The pressure is on because my appearance has been pre-described / critiqued as a "wonderful presentation". No sweat, though. I expect to deliver nothing less than "wonderful".
The topic will be Photography's Reality Effect" - the idea that was developed to describe the ideological effect of a system of representation that is sometimes confused with a literal copy of reality. The reality effect has to do with the way viewers experience how a certain appearance of reality, (in the case of photography) presented on a 2-dimensional surface, becomes intensely conscious.
In the best of cases, what is shown then appears extremely authentic and close to life. Sometimes you even have the impression that you could never perceive it so clearly in real life. An effect that most certainly results from the transition from sensory apprehension to consciousness, which gives the viewer the opportunity to see such appearances at once more analytically and more emotionally.
The point of the presentation will be to discuss how, using the reality effect, a photographer can create photographs that can lead viewers to a 'truth' - or perhaps many (subjective or objective) - that can be arrived at no matter the 'truth' of the actual depicted subject itself. 
Parking lot nightmare • click to embiggenStraight or constructed, the best photography still needs to deliberately and creatively play with the reality effect in order to create pictures of meaning that get beyond documentation.
This should be fun. If you're anywhere in the neighborhood (mapquest directions), you should stop in. Just tell them I invited you.
Reader Comments (1)
The "nightmare" photo is great; absurd enough to be lots of fun for the eyes, but not so fantastic (i.e. floating fairies and dragons) that you can't relate to the image.