A Theory Primer on Photography

What is a camera:

Photo Credit: Marcos Andre (Flickr)

A camera is an apparatus that produces an image on a given media. This media can range from cotton, to glass plates, to paper, to film, to digital sensors. The resulting images are then used to create photographs. Cameras are, in the words of philosopher Vilem Flusser, "the products of applied scientific texts" (2000). There is inherent in all cameras a "programme", a purpose founded on science, that enframes the camera to do what it was designed to do. Watch the following video to get a sense of what a camera does well:

What is a photograph:

According to Susan Sontag a photograph is a type of appropriation, a mimetic object that "seems to have a more innocent, therefore more accurate, relation of the visible reality than do other mimetic objects". There is a power in a photograph that allows us to believe it is a snapshot of reality. This assumption is quickly shattered because, as with all created art, photographers are "still haunted by the tacit imperatives of taste and conscience," (Sontag, 2001). A great photographer is careful about what is allowed inside the frame, what pose brings out the best side of her subject, what props, what kind of lighting (real or artificial), what lens, what camera, what technique, what kind of processing (both chemical and digital are options) to use--all of this is merely the technical side of a photograph; there is also a social dimension to a photograph, a dimension where a transaction takes place between the subject and the photographer, a ritual dance of sorts where an appropriation takes place; a photograph "turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed" (Sontag, 2001), sometimes a photograph is taken without permission and at other times it is given. 

According to Flusser photographs only create the illusion of objectivity (2000). This paradox of seemingly being able to capture reality, but at the same time being influenced by the tastes and predilections, tools, and skills of the photographer is further expounded when we consider the sheer number of media that can be used to host the image created in the camera: paper, glass plates, silver media, leaves, platinum, aluminum and the most dominant form of our age, the screen! 

The materiality of a photograph (or what material is used to showcase the image) can have a profound effect on how a photograph is perceived. Examine the following images to get a better sense for how materiality can impact the pathos of a photograph, and keep in mind you are only seeing the digital version of these works! 

The Starn brothers used Thai-mulberry paper in order to enhance the idea of how delicate is a moth and to provide a physical representation of its scales. Click on the image below to visit their website and see more of their work (most of which is often showcased without text!). When you visit, click on the photographs to scroll through more of their work:

Figure 1. Attracted to Light. 1996-2004. Retrieved from http://www.dmstarn.com/attracted_to_light.html

Binh Danh actually uses leaves and branches to create surreal photographs that no other medium or method can accomplish, and all without a camera. Click on the photograph to access more of Binh Danh's surreal work:

Figure 2. Ancestral Altars. 2006. Retrieved from http://binhdanh.com/Projects/AncestralAltars/AncestralAltars.html

This photographer (much like Binh Danh's work above) forewent the camera to create his work (and this was back in 1922):

Figure 3. Rayograph. 1922. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/265487

This is a type of photograph is called a photogram. Again, in this instance there is no camera involved. Click on the image to learn more about this technique:

Figure 4. Lemons photogram. 2005. Retreived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lemons_photogram.jpg

Sometimes a person is not even required to create a photograph. The work of Canadian Jon Rafman is based on the autonomous images produced by Google's cameras. This raises several questions about the photograph and the photographer. James Entries has even posed the question: "With surveillance cameras blanketing urban centers, have we progressed to the point where cameras don't need photographers and photographers don't need cameras?" (2013). With the work produced in the pre-digital age (and the present digital age) the answer appears to be, yes. However, not everyone has the time or the luxury to scour Google Earth for images, and not everyone has at their disposal the techniques used by Binh Danh or the Starn Brothers (when was the last time you printed on Thai-Mulberry paper?). As you can see the answer is not such a simple one, and people do indeed still create photographs with cameras (it is far easier and more convenient).  

As you can see the photograph goes beyond the mere print most of us are accustomed to seeing in newspapers, magazines, and books. If you ever get a chance to see this work in real life, you will be surprised at how incredible it looks (and the Starn brothers work is really larger than life, mural sized one might say); the digital files you see here are but representations of the real thing. 

There are photographs that idealize, photographs that trivialize, photographs that inform, photographs of the bizarre, the taboo, and the surreal, some that are merely mementos of daily life, and there are more painterly photographs that seek to inspire. Whatever its intent "all photographs testify to time's relentless melt" (Sontag, 2001). Although a photograph is in a sense created by a photographer and her camera, a photograph is still, however flawed or inspiring, a record of the past, a mimetic object that allows present and future viewers to project and use their present experiences and understanding to make sense of the image, of the world, and of the past. 

A photograph must be seen, not simply as a single medium (as a printed image or a digital image), but as a plethora of media that can accommodate images; we must also keep in mind that not all images are printed and not all photographed subjects exist in real life, and sometimes a camera isn't even necessary to capture an image!

The digital image is the most recent addition to the media landscape of the photograph. The digital photograph has again extended the meaning of what is a photograph. This is best summed up by Leuchter when she states: "In an era when technology makes it easy to alter an image, where does photography end and illustration begin? And to what extent must a photograph reflect what the camera sees? This issue isn't exactly new. From the very beginning of the medium, photographers reinvented reality by staging scenes and combining separate images in the camera" (2010).

One affordance of the digital photograph that no other media can offer is how quickly it can be reproduced and shared across the globe. Prior to the internet the only way to share photographs was mainly through albums, magazines, newspapers, galleries, posters, and television, but the internet has allowed the digital photograph to take a visual precedence in the online social landscape of the world, and for anyone, from almost anywhere, to share their work with a world-wide audience.

What is the purpose of Photography?

This is like asking what is the purpose of a piece of paper. The answers are too many to consider. 

However, for the classroom and for the purposes of education the purpose of photography can be best summed up by Dragan's view that kids (and older students) should use cameras "for inquiry, for celebrations, for making personal records, and for sharing, recording, and examining their lives" (2008). To which we would add that examining the lives of others through images is just as important an aspect of photography. 

According to John Tagg "The history of photography stands in relation to the history of Art as a history of writing would to the history of Literature" (1993). Photography is an incredible realm full of visual wonder, surprise, and discovery.