Photography is....

[dan_south]

<blockquote>

<p>Dan, I was confused until I read Steve Gubin's post and then it all became crystal clear! ;)</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yep, that was a real pile of <em>"excreta"</em>! ;-)</p>

[bojepsen1]

<p>I think it's lovely to hear from someone who has decided to take the time to write a few lines about photography after having realised what a wonderful medium it is and what it means to him. I love it :-)</p>

[stp]

<p>If it is the outcome (in the fullest sense of the word) of one person, I think it should be <em>excretum</em>; <em>excreta</em> would be a group effort.</p>

[studio460]

<blockquote>

<p>Photography is . . .</p>

</blockquote>

<p><strong><em>. . . finite!</em></strong> It's possibly what I love most about this medium. Filmmaking, which I've dabbled in, requires endless re-writing, shooting, and post-production. The final product never seems "finished" (at least mine never seem to be). Even on just the shooting itself, there are endless possibilities in panning speed, tracking shot orientation and choreography, of both the camera, and the subject. Composing music . . . even worse. My compositions are never "finished." I'll write eight measures, and then maybe a bridge. If I'm lucky, a chorus. Then what? I've still got to track some vocals someday, and re-lay some drum tracks. Constant, endless, "polishing." Photos . . . once I snap the shutter, for the most part, they're "finished." Yes, there's still printing, mounting and framing, but I don't do a lot of post-production on my photos, so for the most part, they are "finished" work products, "captured," in an instant.</p>

[studio460]

<blockquote>

<p>Photography is . . .</p>

</blockquote>

<p>. . . a "snapshot." A photo-record. A documentarian. A visual/emotional mnemonic device.</p>

[studio460]

<blockquote>

<p>Photography is . . .</p>

</blockquote>

<p>. . . in the digital era, an artform with ultra-cool, very powerful, and highly precise tools for creating two-dimensional images. For me, it's sheer trickery. Photography allows you to use optics in a particular way to skew the world to either exaggerate or compress the viewer's perspective of it. Lighting, composition, and subject choice allow you to design using line, form, and gradient. Determining the angle of incidence of your lighting allows you to exaggerate texture, or to smooth it out. Although almost by definition, it's a photo-realistic artform, through "trickery," abstract images are also attainable. Even by simply representing a three-dimensional scene by a two-dimensional sensor capture, you've already abstracted some of the "realism" out. Nevertheless, I'm always trying to make a photo which doesn't look like I just "took a picture" of what was there (e.g., a photo-record). This seems to be the real trick in turning "snapshots" into something resembling "art," which at least in my case, requires "trickery."</p>

[AlanKlein]

<p>Photography is playing God because only God can stop time and capture the moment. To transport one back to a place to relive once more, to love again where one has loved before. </p>