Pixiq

Some thoughts about the higher value of Photography:

Photography is not necessarily about beauty.

There are more people than ever who are practicing photography in some form or another. A large number of those people call themselves photographers. Yet, they have never taken any kind of formal instruction about its history, camera function, the theory of light, color and lenses, the philosophy, or what photography might be as a communications medium. They are missing the fundamental tools that are needed to fully develop their visual dialogue.

Without realizing it, most people on the planet have little or no true understanding of the power that photography has on their lives. To most, the camera is simply a means for recording objects and events. They typically conceive of a photograph as a recording of something beautiful or something of interest. In the majority of cases, the act of photographing does little to exceed that basic function. It takes little skill to shoot a picture of anything. Most cameras have a point and shoot capability that only needs a trip of the shutter. Since George Eastman produced the first Kodak camera, manufacturers have produced millions of snapshot cameras that serve that simple task. Most users of the medium will never produce images that go beyond the basic recording of visible subjects.

Craftsmanship is a limited skill in terms of the communication of ideas. The highest form of photography is not simply a technology or a craft! It is a method for reaching out to its audience.

To become a photographer is to become a communicator. This would imply a much more advanced set of skills than tripping a shutter. One of the most important of those is the communication of concepts. In fact, I would say that communication is the most important of all photographic skills.

Communication is the goal of any language. As with spoken words, we can only understand what is said if we understand the language. The real power of a photograph lies in the photographer’s ability to produce meaning. You connect with your viewer through an utterance that is understood by your reader. Through the act of photography, the photographer forms a statement that is interpreted by the viewer who reads the content as a set of symbols. This is called discourse and as such acts as a conversation with your viewer. Photography is a two way street. It requires a creator and an audience.

A book only has value to someone who can decipher the contents. That is a skill we call reading. Great photographs contain a similar set of codes that need to be read in order to be understood.

In general, the artist photographer communicates through the use of metaphorical content that can be interpreted to give the photograph meaning. Metaphors are used throughout language as a way to promote understanding. A metaphor is simply understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphors can be implied through common associations and through the reader’s experience. As simplistic examples a skull might suggest death, a bird could be used to signify freedom and a heart is generally used to symbolize love.

In writing, the use of metaphor provides content to provoke insightful imagination within the viewer. Metaphor used in a great image or piece of art serves the same purpose. It is the metaphor that drives the interpretation of the visual. In simple terms, the metaphor utilizes the image subject as a symbol for something else. The subject stands as a symbol that suggests or signifies the concept. That symbol, is used by the reader to more clearly define the real concept of the writing, the artwork or the photograph.

Photography is a language that requires among other things, contemplation, decoding, self- reflection and hopefully communication. At its best, photography offers the viewer a heightened level of understanding. Sometimes this is referred to as a heightened sense of reality.

Photography in its highest form as with all great art requires an open mind and contemplative skills in order to comprehend and appreciate what are fundamentally, visual puzzles.