The subject of “what is a photograph” is one of those which I find difficult, because at one level I am less concerned whether something is perceived as a being a photograph or not, as to whether the piece of art work answers the questions: is this what the artist set out to create? and is it conveying the message that the artist intended?”.

The use of the word “artist” is intentional, whether it refers to “art” or to “photography”. I see myself creating Art and the medium I use is Photography (just one medium of many in the panoply of art) – I do not see myself creating photographs because they are photographs – they are simply the means by which I can at present best convey what message I want to, and engage with an audience. But I do accept and embrace the notion that there is some inherent difference between photography and other art forms in that there is at a basic point a direct correlation – through the means of light and a mechanical device) between the object photographed and the object itself, however the photographer overlays his/her vision on the object (but that’s for a separate later entry on Bazin, Flusser, Jurgenson and others).

That said, I do like Szarkowski’s 5 basic characteristics of a photograph – The Thing Itself, The Detail, The Frame, Time, Vantage Point – as a starting point for thinking clearly about the process of photography and what a photographic image itself represents, particularly the distinction that frequently arises between the thing itself and the image produced from it – the signifier and the signified, as it were.

As Szakowski puts it: “The subject and the picture were not the same thing, although they would afterwards seem so. It was the photographer’s problem to see not simply the reality before him but the still invisible picture, and to make his choices in terms of the latter” (¹). Or as Barthes describes it in Camera Lucida “I call ‘photographic referent’ not the optionally real thing to which an image or a sign refers, but the necessarily real thing which has been placed before the lens, without which there would be no photograph”².

It is also axiomatic in photography that frame, time and vantage point are critical elements of the act of taking a photograph, whether consciously or unconsciously. The choice of frame is as much about what will be included in the photograph as what will be excluded (“The degree to which I believe this is worth looking at can be judged by all that I am willingly not showing because it is contained within it”³. Similarly, the moment of taking the picture, the time, may be crucial in capturing the right light, the right expression, the right shadow (“This choice is not between photographing X and Y: but between photographing at X moment or at Y moment”⁴. [cf also Cartier-Bresson – the decisive moment]. Finally, a change in vantage point may completely alter how elements of an image overlap or are related. I particularly like the idea of multiple images taken at the same time to show that there is not necessarily a single definitive version of an event, but many aspects to it, and as photographers we have the task to make that choice and be judged by it (eg Barbara Probst (2007) Exposure #49).

Stephen Shore expresses the importance of vantage point in a different way in The Nature of Photographs: “Take one step and something hidden comes into view; take another and an object in the front now presses up against one in the distance. Take one step and the description of deep space is clarified; take another and it is obscured”⁵.

As a starting point for this module, I take one clear message from these taxonomies of the basic elements of a photograph. Each photograph deserves to be considered carefully and not rushed. Multiple decisions need to be taken and not all are in the blink of an eye. Take more time over each shot, think carefully about the mechanics of it, and then what the intention of the photograph is – will this set of conditions achieve the desired aim? Or does a different moment, a different location, and/or a different focus, achieve a better result?

“Where a painter starts with a blank canvas and builds a picture, a photographer starts with the messiness of the world and selects a picture. A photographer ……. imposes order on the scene – simplifies the jumble by giving it structure. He or she imposes this order by choosing a vantage point, choosing a frame, choosing a moment of exposure, and by selecting a plane of focus”⁶.

And the purpose is to bring absolute clarity to the intention of taking that particular image in the first place:

“These four attributes [flatness, frame, time, focus] define the picture’s depictive content and structure. They form the basis of a photograph’s visual grammar……They are the means by which photographer’s express their sense of the world, give structure to their perceptions and articulation to their meaning”⁷.

Notes:

1. SZARKOWSKI, John (1966) The Photographer’s Eye New York: Museum of modern Art.
2. BARTHES, Roland (2000) Camera Lucida London: Vantage p76.
3. John BERGER (1968) Understanding A Photograph Penguin Classics p21
4. Ibid p19
5. SHORE, Stephen (2007) The Nature of Photographs New York: Phaidon Press Ltd p48.
6. Ibid p37
7. Ibid p38