{"id":552,"date":"2015-02-06T22:47:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-07T08:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/?p=552"},"modified":"2016-09-20T17:10:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T03:10:56","slug":"what-do-we-owe-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/what-do-we-owe-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"What do we owe photography?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nThis blog comes from a place of contemplation and discussion.\u00a0 What, as photographers, do we owe photography?
\n 
\nRecently I saw an image that was quite impressive from a photographer that had visited Kauai in the last year.\u00a0 However, as I studied the shot I realized something wasnt quite right.\u00a0 After approaching them privately about it, it seems that we dont share the same perspective of full disclosure.\u00a0 And thus my question.\u00a0\u00a0 As photographers it is our gift to be able to capture nature in a way that can really connect with others.\u00a0 Being able to bring them to where we were at the time of capture.\u00a0 Experience that ephemeral moment.\u00a0 With the advent of digital photography (though these techniques were going on long before digital), the reality of an image constantly gets called in to question.\u00a0 With computers we dont need to capture something when we can just hit a few buttons and remake the image to our own will. \u00a0 At least these are the thoughts that cross people’s minds when they often view photographs these days.\u00a0 I’ve experienced it first hand in my Galleries.\u00a0 That utter disbelief that nature could do something so spectacular.\u00a0 “You must have done something”…nope.\u00a0 Those Rainbow Eucalyptus really do look like that, the sky really does have that many stars and waves really do make crazy shapes. \u00a0 That doesnt mean that a photo is done once the shutter is pushed.\u00a0 Cameras are just tools.\u00a0 They dont think, feel or do anything but capture light.\u00a0 It is our job as photographers to take that negative<\/em> and make a final product out of it.\u00a0 In fact, most of the same techniques that were available now were possible in the darkroom, just with a few more chemicals and trial and error.\u00a0\u00a0 Then there are techniques such and dynamic range and focus blending which aim at expanding past the limitations of our gear.\u00a0 Further beyond that we get in to the realm of adding in elements or manipulating a scene so that it fits the image that is in the mind’s eye.\u00a0 The thing is, photography is art.\u00a0 And everything and anything is possible with art.\u00a0 It is what is inside of us that needs to get out and for us that medium is photography.\u00a0 So to achieve the end result by any means is perfectly practical.
\n 
\nSo, if I’m ok with image fabrication why all the hubbub?\u00a0 In the end it comes down to disclosure and transparency.\u00a0 As landscape photographers I believe that we owe it to the scene that we witnessed, the general public and other photographers to be true to our art.\u00a0 By misrepresenting a photograph and not disclosing ‘artistic liberties’\u00a0one is further perpetuating the skepticism that the general public and collectors already have about the art itself.\u00a0 Furthermore we disrespect that which nature has to offer for us.\u00a0 If getting the perfect conditions were easy well….
\n 
\nLets continue to evolve as artists.\u00a0 Create what visions are in our mind’s eye.\u00a0 Chase that light.\u00a0 But always maintain consistency and integrity.\u00a0 We owe it to photography \ud83d\ude42
\n 
\nMuch thanks and good light,
\naF
\n 
\n 
\nP.S.\u00a0 It seems that this post as garnered some attention and after rereading it I realize I that I forgot to clarify a point.\u00a0 I dont believe in spelling out the entire process when ‘creating’ an image but just a simple “artistic license or liberties or whatever you want to call them where taken in this photo” or something along those lines is good enough for me personally.\u00a0 This tells us the viewer that the artist had a goal in mind and bent the rules to fit their vision.\u00a0 If we want to know more, we can ask and this way the artist doesnt need to go in depth all the time.
\n 
\nShould have explained that initially so my apologies there \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This blog comes from a place of contemplation and discussion.\u00a0 What, as photographers, do we owe photography?   Recently I saw an image that was quite impressive from a photographer that had visited Kauai in the last year.\u00a0 However, as I studied the shot I realized something wasnt quite right.\u00a0 After approaching them privately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[206,174,173,175],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-debate","tag-disclosure","tag-honesty","tag-integrity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afeinbergphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}