This is the end of my essay series on how we see and think about photographs. While I could certainly ramble on more or less forever, this is a good place to stop. I started from a simple thesis, a single idea: that we react to a photograph differently than we do to, say, a […]
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In the ongoing spirit of applying my new(?) model of thinking about photographs to old questions, let’s take a pass through “ethics” to see if anything interesting shows up. I am no philosopher, nor an ethicist, so I use “ethics” here broadly, and colloquially. petapixel.com »
2021-01-27 19:10
If you’ve been following along for any length of time, you might be starting to wonder if the author here even owns a camera, and if so, whether he can work it at all. I can! I really do, and I can! I mean, kinda, anyways. This is a picture I took. Let’s talk about […] petapixel.com »
2021-01-13 19:27
The previous essays in this series have tried to develop some ideas about what happens when people look at photos. The realism, that mass of realistic detail, causes (I claim) a visceral reaction: we feel, we react, we think, a little as if we were transported by the photograph into the scene itself. We find […] petapixel.com »
2021-01-09 19:29
In the previous essay on reading photos, I looked at how things we know, mental baggage we have accumulated besides just memories, affect what we see in a photograph. Things like cultural background, political beliefs, movies we’ve seen, or books we’ve read. petapixel.com »
2020-12-29 19:40
In the previous essay, I introduced a couple of imaginary photographs. The first, an old woman celebrating her birthday with family and friends; the second a photograph of a man seated in a chair, attentive to something out of frame. petapixel.com »
2020-12-22 19:01
This is the third essay in this series, and it begins a smaller sequence of notes running over the ways we as viewers make sense of pictures. We spend, I think, too much time thinking about what happens before and during the making of a picture, but not enough on what happens when someone actually […] petapixel.com »
2020-12-15 21:13
In the previous essay, I made an argument that photographs (and things that are like photographs) metaphorically transport us into the scene of the photo. We react, body and mind, a little bit as if we were actually present. petapixel.com »
2020-12-07 21:32
At a recent electronic music performance, the English duo Rob Brown and Sean Booth, who perform as Autechre, plunged Sydney’s City Recital Hall into darkness. [Read More]
Over the last month, communities around the world have felt passionate responses to the developing conflict in Israel, Gaza, and surrounding areas. As simple or complex as one might find the hostilities in the abstract the ripples of geopolitics affect us all, sometimes very obviously, and sometimes subtly. [Read More]
AI is all the buzz and it seems to be attaching itself to everything, everywhere, all at once. The canary in the AI coal mine? Images and writing. [Read More]
The context and process behind a photograph can be interesting on a technical level when it comes to the gear, film, lighting setup, and any artistic emotion or guidance that may have gone into it from a photographer with an interesting backstory to them. [Read More]
It’s difficult to see how anyone other than the photographer is responsible for a photograph they may take, although I’m sure there are some specific exceptions – but usually, if a photographer is not responsible for their photograph, then who should be? [Read More]
If you are not responsible for the meaning behind your photographs then who is?
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I recently wrote about the importance of discourse on the ethics around photography, where I offered my perspective on why rules and doctrines around decision making can diminish your ability to stand behind your work, justify your decisions, and really take responsibility and ownership over your vision. [Read More]