So we need to go back and give that medium a good, hard look again. What does it actually do? Not what we think it does, not what we want it to do. Instead: What does it do? And how does it do that? We need to think about that process of defamiliarization.

Instead of whining about the limitations of the medium, we need to start appreciating those very limitations. It is right here that the promises lie.

via The Challenge of Photography | Conscientious Photography Magazine.

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6 Comments

  1. Interesting addition to the current conversation on the nature of our craft. After the Dallas Morning News broke the story of SI changing Baylor’s jersey colors, I wrote a response to the “truth in photography” question.

    For those interested in this subject, I think it still applies:

    http://squarerootofnine.com/blog/when-facts-fail/

  2. Photography = truth
    Digital Imaging = belief

  3. Who’s whining?

  4. Interesting thesis, yet I think is not close to the truth. One thing “None of the non-photo-world people I have talked to over the past years has ever even entertained the idea that their photographs on Instagram, say, would be comparable to photographs produced by professionals. People know the difference between apples and oranges very well.”

    The consumer wants the oranges but wants to pay the apple price. They don’t know difference between trained and untrained. I think there is a lot of wishful thinking to the article, mostly wishful, with some scattered bits of truth. then again it’s just my opinion.

  5. […] The Challenge of Photography – “Instead of whining about the limitations of the medium, we need to start appreciating those very limitations. It is right here that the promises lie.” […]


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