[Leica] what is truth?

[phong at doan-ltd.com (Phong)]

Henning,

You speak my mind better than I do.

- Phong

> Henning Wulff wrote:
> 'Pictures' of any sort are an abstraction. If you are not trained in
> looking at two dimensional representations, they will not convey
> anything the maker intended to you. Early on in photography B&W
> became the standard through lack of ability to do colour. In most of
> the art world, B&W is a sketching tool, or a technique of convenience
> when colour is too cumbersome. Some B&W developed its own course, but
> colour was the ultimate goal in most cases. Egytian and Greek statues
> were painted and very colourful. Sculptors who worked in the
> 'classical' idiom in the renaissance and later didn't necessarily
> colour them because they took as inspiration statuary that had its
> colour washed off over the centuries.
>
> After colour became practical and inexpensive, it became the standard
> in photography as well, but due to the long development of a B&W
> aesthetic it has continued as a significant sideline, but it is just
> as much a personal translation of the data as the data from the space
> probe. 'False colour' photos show us things we don't ordinarily
> perceive; B&W is 'false colour'.
>
> For journalistic purposes we have been trained to accept and
> interpret a certain subset of image making as appropriate, for the
> wider range of image making this subset does not apply. Neither is
> the 'truth' nor 'honest'; they are only honest to their own standards
> and withing their own interpretations. Documentary and journalistic
> photography (not the same thing) demand certain standards be met to
> be successful and accepted, but they are hardly the standard bearers
> for what is 'photography'. Photography is making images with light,
> and says nothing about how the result is achieved or what
> manipulations are allowed.
>
> Truth is not to be found in photography. If someone holds up a photo
> and says: "This is the TRUTH", then he is lying. If someone holds up
> a photo and says: "This is what it looked like at the moment I took
> the picture, except the scene was really in colour, and that flare
> spot didn't exist in reality, and you could really see into those
> shadows that are totally black here, and you could really see the
> detail in the hilights and there was an elephant present which you
> can't see 'cause I didn't have my 21 with me, and that blob at the
> back was Mr. Smith but he's out of focus due to my having to shoot at
> f/2" then he's being more truthful.