Photography and truth by Howard Grill

Posted by T. Michael Testi

I just found a wonderful essay over on Digital Outback Photo by Howard Grill called "Photography and Truth"

Here, Grill contemplates what is truth within the world of photography, especially Digital photography. He examines why no one would give the same grief to say a painter for making the sky darker or removing an unwanted object from the scene, but yet they do with photographers.

He does acknowledge that journalistic photographers have a different set of standards, but they too can cheat just by getting in too close or changing the aperture of the lens.

Photography And Truth

by Howard Grill

I have never understood why photography is essentially the only artistic medium in which people seem to expect literal, factual interpretations of a subject. It is not at all unusual for someone, after looking at and seemingly enjoying a photographic print, to turn around and question if there has been 'manipulation' of the image because of the intensity of color or contrast, the perspective of a particular lens, or the use of shutter speeds that provide an unexpected appearance. Unfortunately, many of these comments are made in a derogatory fashion; there is seemingly no artistic vision or expertise involved if there were ‘adjustments’ that were made……it is as if to say “aha, once you are allowed to make adjustments I could have done that as well”, and therefore the perceived ‘value’ (and I am not talking about monetary value here) is lessened. Read More...

 

Opinion,Photography,Manipulation