Category Archives: Blog

This post was originally going to be about ‘Colour & Saturation’ but as I was writing I realised an even more fundamental question was worth discussion and that is now the title of this post.

Putting the technicals aside, just what is ‘photography’ to me?  Well, for many years it was simply capturing the image as seen by the human-eye.  This was generally, pretty uncomplicated and included the right choice of film, a filter or two and developing the negative’s to recreate what the eye observed.  When I viewed the results I was happy it reflected reality.  Anything else was just not-on and not photography but art.

Starting my journey in photography with that guiding principle, in hind sight, was no bad thing as it provided a foundation from which it was hard to stray both technically and morally.  It also provided a baseline against which my maturing photography could be tested.

But I have come to realise that humans rarely see a photograph in the same way.  What one person may think magnificent another thinks is overly saturated or just boring! So what was I capturing?  Reality? Well, it was something I found pleasurable.   That’s to my brain and my eyes.

Now several years later we live in a different world.  Just about any post-capture modification is possible and has probably been done by somebody.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing.  But how far does one go with modifications?  This is the issue that continues to occupy my thoughts.

Is photography about recording images as seen by the eye – whose eye? – or is it about producing art – perhaps works of fiction – that people find pleasurable?  I have considered photography to be capturing what the eye sees and art as creating images/paintings etc that may or may not bear a reflection of reality.  But as my photography has matured my view of what is acceptable has broadened to a point were anything is OK as long as the final image is not mis-sold.  I hope a couple of examples will make this clearer:  where large manipulation such as skies or building removal are made this must be made known just as editing-out the leash from captive birds and then selling the image as wild birds is today unacceptable.

What I find acceptable photography practice and what I do are a little different though!  My photography does not include wholesale changes such as building removal or sky replacement as this would be stretching my guiding principle of capturing what the eye sees a bit too far.  However, I will crop, adjust tonal balance, remove dust spots etc.

So to answer the question of whether photography to me is art, the answer today is most certainly yes but I am still guided by that early principle of capturing what the eye sees. Its no longer a black & white or right and wrong topic but more a wall along which I ‘walk’, continually evaluating my principles and fashion’s of the day.

But, what we find acceptable and to ‘our’ taste – fashion – changes over time.  eg. Art Deco of the 1930/40′s.  That style is no longer in fashion. This is were I wonder if my ‘keep-it-real’ principle is actually a limit on my photography.  Probably, but that to me is partly my style.  But I do care that in this age when post-capture manipulation is so powerful and easy that realism is slipping from photography.  For example, is the highly polished, unblemished skin of today’s fashion photography real?  Absolutely not.  Is it sold as real – absolutely.  Is the over-saturated colours of many landscape photographs real?  Absolutely not!  But that is the fashion today – it will change, of that I’m certain.

I have been doing some thinking about photography lately, my style, my influences and how its changed over the years to mention but a few.  So, I’ve decided to create a blog, separate, from my ongoing and new projects to reflect my thinking on photography.