Photography: the poetry of reality

This essay is pompous, arrogant, even epistemological.

I am going to attempt to define a basic term. Not "good," "being" or" bad" but "photography". More specifically, "photography" as an art form .. akin to painting, music, acting, etc.

1, Photography is NOT technique. Mastery or methods do not define photography any more than canvas defines painting. A masterful picture of a corn flakes box, a technological feat but probably not an art form.

2,, Photography is not about light, cameras, or pixels. Most folks can recognize "photographs." However, this does not say much about how the images are made. Photographs, that is images that appear photographic can be made with an air brush. Cameras can be dipped n paint to "make" images. Man Ray used photographic film and paper to record shadows, making "Ray-O-Grams" ... was this painting?

So what is Photography about? a Zen answer might be "Photography is about what." That is Photography uses reality, elements of reality, elements of belief in reality ... the "what" we mean in the sentence, "What is that?"

Like the words used in poetry, the elements of a photograph limit the work of the phtographer. Where the painter has no limits in choices of image or tone, as a photographer I need to work with a limited vocabulary of real objects with realistic impact.

This image from Bremerton illustrates my point. Is this image "real?" Do you believe I "made" this with a camera? Or, perhaps is it a B&W drawing? If the entire image is real, is the seascape real? Is the seascape in color or is the real seascape a B&W mural? Maybe the foreground is pasted onto a seascape?

The image may be called a play on reality. This play on reality, like the poet's playing with the "meanings" of words is the essence of photography.