On The Road

What is a photograph?

“Putting four edges around a collection of information or facts transforms it. A photograph is not what was photographed, it’s something else…a new world is created”.

Yes a new 'product' is created and whilst a photograph isn't itself what was photographed it is still an image of what was photographed. Take away this objective content and you would be left with nothing.

To materialists like myself the 'subjective' is also part of the 'objective' world itself.

An interesting question arises though which is analogous to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in physics and that is; 'how much difference does the observer make to the thing under observation?'

watching shadows

"how much difference does the observer make to the thing under observation?"

indeed. I believe a photograph is only a mirror, be it faint or clear, of how the photographer has seen a subject. the photographer is taking in the scene, then using his camera he/she tries to capture what he has seen in a way that he wants, already the subject has reflected to a fourth stage on the film and after that comes editing and the viewer, seing and trying to understand the phtoto while our minds makes its own connections from how/where the photo is seen and our relationship to the subject. Then if the subject is able to itself react to the photographer another reflection is added. We can only believe in what we see if we choose to, based on our own mindset and experiences.
well, that's what I think anyway.