What’s In A Photo?
The three layers of depth hidden behind every image you see.
Aesthetics…
is, in part, situations and our interactions with one another and one’s environment. The environment is affected by human activity as much as humans are affected by the environment.
Nobody understands how anything, least of all a photograph, could be
transcendent.
“On Photography”, Susan Sontag
Perspective
Subject
The subject’s very soul is indeed captured in the photograph.
The subject’s life blood bleeds through the photo’s frame. The viewer receives a semblance of their history, their pleasure, their pain. Their mood before, now, and soon after the photograph was taken.
The subject affects their environment as much as environment affects the subject. In fact, most subjects alter the capture of the photo simply due to their awareness of their invisible situation — being photographed.
The subject can be an object or a location just as easily as it can be an individual or a group. Any subject carries with it history — a story of its own.
Perspective
Photographer
Any photographer inevitably leaves his or her mark, often referred to as their “style.”
The photographer’s perspective is shown through their choices — intentional or otherwise — such as their chosen subject, environment, relative angle, and the frame…
The Frame
A frozen window into a moment in time. That’s the magic a photographer holds in his or her hands.
Through choice of angle, tilt, aperture, and shutter speed the light is captured — but more impressive is what was intentionally not captured. Inclusion and exclusion are inevitable when framing a photograph, ultimately resulting in the newly formed perspective of the photographer.
Perspective
Viewer
We are interpretive beings.
Much like the subject in a photograph, we too bring with us baggage — history, a story — that alters our understanding of what we see. Everyone’s interpretation of a photograph will be different. Including the viewer’s immediate environment while viewing the photograph. Consider the difference of viewing the same photograph on Facebook versus in an art gallery. Viewing a photograph in a family photo album involves a completely different mindset or point of reference than being on a school field trip.
Experience vs. Remembrance
All photographs are images of the past.
Therefore our interpretation of an image is always different than that of the photographer.
A photograph is a captured moment in time that helps the viewer to catch a glimpse into what once was. To have truly experienced the moment in it’s full vibrancy is difficult, if not impossible, to capture — but with the right frame of reference an understanding can be gained from the viewing of a quality photograph.
These three perspectives are all layers responsible for portraying
the depth of a photograph. Once our waking world is framed and frozen it becomes another world entirely.
All the languages of art have been developed as an attempt to transform the instantaneous into the permanent.
“The White Bird”, John Berger
In writing this I have in fact transplanted my own perspective onto these images that affect the way you perceive them.
~ Many thoughts interpreted from Susan Sontag’s “On Photography”
