The Thing Learning Log

In The Thing Itself, Szarkowski talks about the differences between the thing that is shown in the photograph, the subject, and the photograph itself. The thing that is shown in the photograph is simply the moment the photographer captured when taking the photo. The subject is, in a way, the protagonist of the story the photograph is telling. The photograph is the visual image you get when combining these two elements. Szarkowski points out in his passage while the thing in the photograph is seen as a part of reality, whether the photograph itself is an objective truth can be called into question. The photograph carries the photographer’s intentions in the way the moment is framed and what important aspect it is pointing to. In one of the photos from the world press photo 2015 contest, the photographer intentionally tells a story of a migrant escaping a group of guards through the photo’s composition, without giving any attention to the guards who are right in front of him. Another thing is that photographs outlive the thing that is shown within them and their subjects. The thing that is shown has been lost to history and the subject may have long passed away. But if a photograph was taken of a subject within a specific moment, it becomes a remembered reality. For example, very few people who actually lived through the horrors of the Vietnam War are alive today to tell it. Yet, the photograph of a little Vietnamese girl getting napalmed is what most people think of when thinking about the Vietnam War. Through that photograph people can get an idea of what it was like to experience the war. But the photograph is more important than the moment it shows, as it holds the photographer’s decision to capture that specific moment and has become a permanent part of the way we tell history.