ku # 475
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 03:03PM 
A back bay along the Raquette • click to embiggenIt seems like it's been awhile since I've posted a plain old ku. It also seems like it's been awhile since I held forth on things photographic. So, consider this -
More convincingly than any other kind of picture, a photograph evokes the tangible presence of reality. Its most fundamental use and its broadest acceptance has been as a substitute for the subject itself - a simpler, more permanent, more clearly visible version of the plain fact.
Our faith in the truth of a photograph rests on the belief that the lens is impartial, and will draw the subject as it is, neither nobler nore meaner. This faith may be naive and illusory (for though the lens draws the subject, the photographer defines it), but it persists. The photographer's vision convinces us to the degree that the photographer hides his hand. ~ from The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski.
Szarkowski wrote this in 1966. Much has changed. However, even in the era of Wall-esque 'constructions', the above still holds true. If the goal is to make a more clearly visible version of the plain fact, the photographer had best hide his hand, not his brain, just his hand.
But, of course, in evoking the tangible presence of reality, a photographer with a brain can learn that ... the appearance of the world [is] richer and less simple than his mind would have guessed. He can discover that ... his pictures could reveal not only the clarity but also the obscurity of things, and that these mysterious and evasive images could also, in their own terms, seemed ordered and meaningful.
Reader Comments (1)
Not sure why, but I really like this photo. Composition is solid, but not looking like you're trying too hard. Evokes a strong mood, which I will admit I have a weakness for. Great stuff, as usual, Mark! Damn, if it doesn't look like an album cover (do they still have those?)