COMD 2330 Digital Photography Fall 2015

The Thing Itself talks about how the subject of the photograph is different than the actual photograph even though they are in the same area. If i take a picture of a building, and a month later return to the same area only to find out that the building was demolished. When i look  back at the area that the picture was taken from, i will remember the building that used to be there. We believe the picture because that is what we are shown. It is up to the photographer to pick the right moment and capture it so everyone else can see. Nowadays a photograph can be tampered with using photoshop so it is harder for us to believe the picture.

To me, I think the differences between photography and reality are first, people can see more details in a photograph which are ignored in their lives. Secondly, people also get resonance and feeling from the same photograph; besides that the photography can be more directly illustrates things than words. At last, photography is the way for catch one moment of our life, and not change as time past. based on that we know the reason that photograph might be more important than the thing itself is, it keeps thing at one moment and people usually get resonance from it.

In the passage: “The Thing Itself”, the photographer wants to reflect your view on a photograph by showing that what we see in the photograph can show you more understanding and explanation than the subject or even the photograph itself. What I mean by this is that sometimes when we look at an image we can capture the emotion and meaning that makes the story, but when we focus on the subject itself we are pretty much just capturing the image. For the photograph itself we might view it in different ways, meaning that we will view the photograph as certain experiences we might of encountered in our life. So as quoted in the passage, ” The subject and the picture were not the same thing, although they would afterwards seem so. It was the problem to see not simply the reality before him but the still invisible picture, and to make his choices in terms of the latter”. I believe that by this the photographer wants to show you that when you view the image right in front your eyes you will get a different aspect, rather than just focusing on the subject itself.

Many photographs capture a moment in time but somehow, the photo and the “thing itself” are not the same. When taking a photo, the subject and actuality of the moment gets filtered because the “thing itself” didn’t pause while the photo was  being taken and it will not pause after.  Meaning, a photographer is capable of capturing a moment but can only take so much. Although people pause to take photos, the surroundings don’t and will continue to change even after the photo is taken. As time goes on the “thing itself” will no longer be the way it was when the photo was first taken . For example, taking a photo of Central Park in New York in summer will not look the same as a photo taken in winter. Although it is Central Park in both photos, they will not look identical because time didn’t stop when the first photo was taken.  Although time changes, the actual photos of Central Park in the summer and winter will remain the same long pass the season. Photographs have the power to make us capture a precious moment and remember it, even though the “thing itself” gets lost, the photo will live way past the moment.

In this excerpt from “The Photographer’s Eye” Szarkowski outlines the differences that a photographer creates between the photo and its subject which causes the photo to overall be more important than what it documents. He explains that photographs carry unrealistic clarity and show a very specific perspective. While the photographer is taking the photo he can see the motion of the scenery and has almost infinite possibilities on what he chooses to photograph from his environment. This means that Photos not only document a scene, but reflect on the thoughts of the photographer making it artistic and showing the image that they imagined. The portrayal of the scene is determined by the photographer and the viewer absorbs it as fact and remembers it as shown rather than if they had been there physically and observed it. All these ideas he has about photography are to support his main argument that photographs can have a bigger influence on memory than the actual experience.