Lenses Through Which to Consider Photographs

Since its invention in 1839, photography has helped us document, understand and interpret the world. It has been reinvented continually through technological advancements and by the diverse ways in which artists and professionals have used it. Today, taking, sharing, and viewing photographs has become second nature for many of us. The following are lenses through which we can consider photographs: 

• One Subject, Many Perspectives - Photography is rooted in both art and science and, over time, photographers have used diverse ways to capture a single subject. Photographers have been limited by the materials and technology available. 

• Documentary - Photographers use their cameras to to record, remember, or bear witness to the world around them, often in service to social issues. 

• Multiplicity - Photography is a mechanical process. One consequence of this is that multiple images have been essential to the medium from its earliest days. Photographers can make multiple prints from a given negative, and can edit groups of images into series. Photographs can be gathered into albums and sequenced in books, and new meanings often emerge from these combinations. 

• Challenging & Re-contextualizing Narratives - Photographs can be powerful tools in complicating accepted truths and realities, clarifying or complicating our understanding not only of intimate moments in time, but also historical narratives and current cultural issues and events. Also, through context and alterations, images can distort our understanding of the world. Contemporary artists appropriate and re-contextualize images drawn from mass media, pop culture, archives, and museums. In doing so, they seek to reveal biases, challenge accepted histories, and construct new narratives.

• Pictures of People - On the surface, photographic portraits appear to convey the characteristics of individuals before the camera. However, portraits represent much more than their literal depictions. Many factors impact how a portrait is made and perceived. The relationship between the sitter and photographer, the location where the portrait was made, the subject’s awareness of the camera, as well as their gestures, poses, and clothing—each one of these elements affects not only the final image, but our interpretation of it.

• Proliferation of Images - Evolving photographic technologies have made taking and distributing pictures increasingly simple, with the result that photography has become fully integrated into daily life. Now, with the proliferation of digital cameras, smart phones, and social media platforms, trillions of images are shared online each year, adding to those we encounter on television, in print publications, and in advertisements. It can seem that we are submerged in an ocean of images. Since the 1960s, artists have been exploring both the means and the effects of our constant exposure to images and the power they have in shaping our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. 

The same ideas distilled even further: 

1. Photographers use diverse ways to capture a single subject, often influenced by the materials and technology available at the time. 

2. Photographers use their cameras to to record, remember, or bear witness to the world around them, often in service to social issues. 

3. Photographers can make multiple prints from a single negative, and can edit groups of images into series. Often new meanings emerge from these combinations. 

4.  Through context and alterations, images can clarify or distort our understanding of the world.

5. Portraits represent more than just their literal depiction of the person. The final image and our interpretation of it are impacted by many factors including relationship, location, gesture, clothing, etc. 

6. Technology has allowed photography to become fully integrated into every day life, but not without ramifications. 

Notes taken from the MoMA course Seeing Through Photographs.