Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/03/30

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Subject: [Leica] what is truth?
From: telyt at earthlink.net (Douglas Herr)
Date: Wed Mar 30 09:08:06 2005

Steve Barbour <kididdoc@cox.net> wrote:

> taking vs making...
>
> <http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/making-images.shtml>

Photography cannot convey truth; truth is a continuum of time and space 
while a photograph is a limited view of a fraction of time.  Photography is 
an interpretation of truth that can convey understanding.  Meyers' space 
probe data example is appropriate here because the data the probes relayed 
to earth had to be interpreted in order to be understood.

In making an image Meyers is showing us how he interprets the scene in front 
of him, or how he understands it if you will.  The photographer's task is to 
include in the picture the elements of truth that promote his understanding 
while excluding those elements of truth which are marginally useful (or 
distracting) to his understanding.

IMHO there is no such thing as 'taking' a photograph because the 
photographer, in choosing a particular view or moment in time, is making 
decisions about how the photograph should look.


Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com

Replies: Reply from henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff) ([Leica] what is truth?)