A Photograph: a still image very much alive
While reading Plato’s Cave by Susan Sontag what I found the the most notable was the continuing amount of answers for two questions;
What is a photograph, and Why do we take them.
Before this reading I had never though about a photograph to be something with a motive. It is clear to me now that without a motive there would be no photograph, let alone photography. Photography was created by the desire to capture something before it was gone, no longer existing in the same moment in time. In the reading Sontag speaks of all kind of photographs with a multitude of purposes.
On one end there is wartime photograph captured to show to the truth and brutality of the war. This photograph is the one that will make headlines in newspapers and be on covers of magazines. This photographs is proof, evidence and its purpose is to inform, educate even evoke action.
On the other end you have the photographs like ones in every families photo albums. The family vacations, birthdays, distant relatives on rare occasions. These photographs serve a completely different purpose. These photographs are taken to remember, to be a souvenir, to capture an experience so it wont be forgotten.
A photograph can be many things, and can be taken for various reasons.
A photograph can be…
- An experience captured
- Proof/Evidence
- A piece of the world
- An interpretation of our surrounding
- An object that makes things real
- A souvenir
- Participation
- A Slice of time
- Validity
- Documentation
We Take photographs to…
- Remember
- Exploit
- Document
- Participate
- Prove
- Express
- Feel
- Validate
