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A photo is a secret about a secret


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<p>Coined by the photographer Diane Arbus, I was wondering about the secrets in my own photos. Most are landscapes, so those are pretty straight forward. But then there are those like this one. I called it <em>Pals</em>. What do you think the secret is? You can read what I think below the picture. And then post your own picture and let us figure out its secret.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3718/12200315376_bf2353476a_z.jpg" alt="" /><br>

So my take on this picture is that I was eating lunch in Tom's Diner on the Coney Island boardwalk. And in comes this women with Mickey tucked under her arm. It was December and cold, so the rides and amusements were closed. She couldn't have just won it in the arcade. Anyway, she didn't seem the type to play games but she did see rather lonely. So was this her pal? Mickey seems to be looking out for her with concern. Or was this a gift she was taking to her grandchild? I should have asked her. My loss.</p>

<p>Your turn.</p>

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<p>Alan, my guess would be the gift for her grandchild, but we'll never know!<br>

My example is from portraiture. To me people's expressions are often full of mystery. We communicate so much with our faces, often unconsciously and at odds at what we are verbally expressing. This portrait of a young girl is one of my favorites because it seems to have that quality of mystery in her expression. </p><div>00cPiY-545801584.jpg.0a8feba5f3f61085bb83c0583ea8bab7.jpg</div>

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<p>Great idea, Alan. So many similarities and also important difference between a secret and a question or mystery. </p>

<p>If I told the secret, would it still be a secret?</p>

<p>For me, the secret of many photos is the original experience, story, or scene, which is often only partially revealed, sometimes more hidden, and always transformed in the photo itself. So only when I tell the story of what was going on when I took the photo is the secret revealed. Unless I want the photo to show the secret (to the extent it can), in which case it isn't really a secret at all. For me, it's not my own wondering of what the photo shows or what a subject may have been thinking or doing. Though that can certainly be a mystery. A secret is the photo's hiding of what was in plain sight when I took it. The secret can also be partially what's outside the frame, which I know but you don't.</p><div>00cPjB-545803484.jpg.d0a56839c7a6ce30f042afcaacf78897.jpg</div>

We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<p>Julie: I've always wondred what was real and what was inserted in your pictures. They're all very good, you know.</p>

<p>Steve: The eyes have it in yours. Well caught. I feel like I can see inside, but I really don't know what I see or what she's thinking. I once went to a Richard Avedon rememberance at a Long Island, NY museum. There was a guide who went around to explain the pictures (all portraitures and women modelling clothes in action, a style he developed). There were also little index cards beneath the pictures. I have to tell you that I did not see in the pictures what the guide and the index cards portrayed. I think we make up secrets about what we think we're seeing. It makes the picture, and ourselves, more interesting to others.</p>

<p>Fred: I feel your father.</p>

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<p>Alan, the key word is "inserted." That's to do with relationships. Whether in a composite or in non-composite ("straight") photography, I can play with the relationships, but the things (animal, vegetable or mineral) remain out of my reach. I didn't "make" them -- they came that way. Why is that bird in like that? Why that posture, that expression, that attitude, etc.? He/she came that way -- I didn't paint it or sculpt it or fabricate it.</p>

<p>That's one secret. The other, the "envelope" is why I do what I do with the "pieces." Why does my attitude/feeling/idea cause or enter into those "pieces" such that I want them just so and not otherwise? I know (there it is, after all) but I couldn't really tell you.</p>

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<p>Another possibility is a dialogue between the photo and the viewer or the photo and the photographer. I think very little lies <em>entirely</em> with the photographer's intentions. As the photo is made and viewed and takes on a life of its own, the intentions will often recede in importance, even to the photographer if he's willing to evolve with where the photo now takes him. Also, those intentions are often very non-specific and at least somewhat indistinct, more like poetry than prose. For example, with respect to my photo above, I can look at it and say how it may fit into my aesthetic and even my body of work but I couldn't tell you what my intentions were at the time, other than to wonder what a hand-held photo in such low light would look like. I really just saw a scene come together and felt potential in the visuals. I had been very stimulated by the place I was in and things seemed suddenly to align.</p>
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<p>I agree with Fred. The secret is usually beyond the intention of the photographer. With portraits, the brief instant of communication/dialogue between photographer and subject is mostly unknown until it actually happens. Even then, you don't know what you've really captured until later when you see it. </p>
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<p>I might agree or disagree - it depends.</p>

<p>Well. The secret that can be told is not a real secret, isn't it? And even amongst those there are secrets known to many (or all, or some - who knows?)</p>

<p>The real secret is one which is totally unknown to anyone but it sort of exist in nebulous state of multiple ques inching slowly on to be discovered, to disclosed, to be realized in dazling satori of ultimate clearness. -- here's my little bet:</p>

<div>00cPvN-545833984.jpg.ba5d6cc5556b9d392c01dd7e6f56f87f.jpg</div>

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<blockquote>

<p>(Steve:) I agree with Fred. The secret is usually beyond the intention of the photographer.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>And sometimes beyond the viewer.</p>

<p>The lady in this photo, apparently bending over in pain and apparently sympathetically being watched over by her dog, was actually in the process of placing a small screen on the window beyond her. But I think I would abandon the real (but secret) reason for that of the illusion the image creates.</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/photo/11472740</p>

<p>(By the way, maybe someone can answer this: Is there some way to extract one of our PNet portfolio photos as a jpeg or other document and transfer it directly to this post, or elsewhere?)</p>

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<p>,Alan, Interesting subject and uploaded examples. Your photo is really asking a lot of unanswered questions. <br /> I think many photographs has the question marks(?) on them, my point is the more questions asked by the viewer and even by the photographers are more interesting to explore.(Flying?)</p><div>00cQ6C-545868584.jpg.2800aaf1a13535881c447a2d2cff42cd.jpg</div>
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<p>Pnina I agree that interesting questions are asked by viewers and photographers. That's because it's a secret!</p>

<p>Arthur. If you right click on the photo, and then click on Properties, your see the link that will look something like this with a jgp at the end: http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/14054518-md.jpg</p>

<p>Copy the url. Then come back to your Response and click on the tree icon above. When it opens, paste the photo link you copied. When you submit, you should see the photo. Alan</p>

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<p> Arthur: Here's your photo. Nice shot. wonder what the dog was thinking?? What was she doing with her foot?</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/11472740-lg.jpg" alt="" width="497" height="660" /><br>

photo by <a name="00cQ4v"></a><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=2347092">Arthur Plumpton</a></p>

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<p>A question that arises for me is how literally I may want to approach whatever secrets I think may be lurking in photos. My first take above, relating the photo back to the original experience, was a pretty literal one. What was actually happening that I don't have access to just by looking at the photo. It was about the secret of how the photo relates to the "real" world or to what was going on when I was shooting. Thinking more about this topic, I've come also to want mine and others' photos to unlock for me certain clues into my own and others' emotions and ways of thinking. I keep stuff secret from myself and sometimes it takes a good photo, a good photo shoot, a good series of photos, or exposure to someone else's meaningful photos to unravel things.</p>
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<p>Thinking a little more, the quote has two secrets, not just one. So what if one secret is what is just outside the frame or what was really going on or why the subject is making a certain kind of gesture? And what if the second secret is the photo itself and its relationship to me. What does it have in store for me? What is its significance to me? How does it move me?</p>
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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<p>Alan, thanks for the transfer process (and your OP subject). I will try it at my client's office on their PC. Unfortunately I have a Mac and a mouse with no right click. I will google "mouse right click equivalent for Apple" for my home computer.</p>
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<p>Fred,I think that your addition that a photo has to have some relation/saying/significance to the viewer is very well expressed, as if those elements are missing,the viewer will have one look and go away.. The photographer's reaction is another element in my view, as he/she were uploading the photo, so for him/her the photo has a priory a significance.</p>

<p>(As usual I always forget the 700 pixels... and as a regular PC user no problem for me)...</p><div>00cQD7-545888484.jpg.cf683b3af4c4f80e1a21b5ca4717d08c.jpg</div>

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<p>Fred, thanks for this practical suggestion. I had also found it a bit earlier on Google and tried it, but to no avail. Control-click brings other headings * to the front, but no "properties" or other apparent manner to download the image. I tried some of the headings but none provided a route to photo download. I will just have to re-locate the original in future.</p>

<p>A "secret" about a "secret" of Apple?</p>

<p>* "Back"; "Reload page"; "Open in dashboard"; "View source" (nothing here among all the technical data and http references) ; "Save page as" (not useful as whole page is saved): "Print page"</p>

 

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