Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:19 pm
This is a wonderful discussion because, I think, it gets to the heart of what photography is about. I can think of two "types" of photographs (and I'm sure there are more): There is "documentary" photography and "evocative" photography, with some overlap between the two. Documentary photography is what I think of as photo journalism. It is an attempt to accurately portray an event or moment in time with a high degree of verisimilitude. This means that a minimum of editing should be performed, and certainly you shouldn't be moving or deleting objects in order to make a "better" picture. But what about darkening a background, so that your central subject stands out more? How about cropping the scene to better focus attention? Since most of use see in color, is black and white film a true representation of "reality"? The image is two dimensional, not three, so what effect does that have? And finally, the camera has a very limited view of the overall scene, so the photographer has to choose a "frame", a small part of the scene to include in the photograph. Does that selection alter the "reality" of what shown in the photo because it excludes other information that might change your perception of the scene? Even at their best, documentary photos are only a crude representation of reality as we experience it, but by social consensus, we accept them as representing reality.
Evocative photography on the other hand, is about creating a feeling in the viewer. It may, or may not, closely resemble reality as perceived by your eye, but it's real purpose it to evoke in the viewer a particular set of emotions. That emotion might be a sense of awe at a magnificent landscape, or the beauty of a flower, or sadness, or any of the thousands of other emotions we experience. Evocative photography is free to use any technique available, including extensive digital editing. It is an attempt to express what was/is seen in the photographer's "mind's eye", and share it with others (and some of us see with a pretty weird "mind's eye"......). BTW, I think the best documentary photographs are also evocative. I tend to judge all photos by the emotions they evoke in me.
Ultimately, a photo is just, well, a photo! It's not reality, it's at best on a crude representation of reality. There is no "cheating", except to the degree that you try to present a photograph as reality. So, go ahead, use whatever techniques are available to you to create images that capture your vision. If you're good at it, or lucky, you'll be able to evoke in others the emotions you experienced when you took the picture.
Cheers,
Terry Melman