Past Appearance | Crucial element Indispensable properties Concentrated form |
A
photographic image is a visual record of the past. Photographic operators can customize history in many different ways dependent on viewpoint, angle of coverage, aperture and shutter speed settings, and most importantly character of light; its intensity, direction, and wavelength complexion. So many dissimilar appearances are possible, any one of which is only a partial representation of the event, not a complete narrative. Since the singular image incompletely represents the appearance of something, this might question the cultural notion that the photograph captures reality. Of course, there might also be much more to reality than just appearance.
“It gives me a deep comforting sense that things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.” - Helen Keller
