Blog Prompt #16, #17, #18

Duane Michals said, “I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways."

I agree that the magic can be seeing people in new ways, but I don't think photography shouldn't tell you what you already know. One of the best things about photography is that it captures a moment that one can look back on for the rest of his or her life. If a photo captures a mother exactly as the son knows her, and then 50 years later when the mother has passed away and that son is showing it to his children and he gets filled with this emotion because this photograph is showing exactly what he already knows and he misses her, I think there is magic in that. But I do also agree that there is magic in seeing people in news ways within a photograph as well.

Michals is also the  the guy who originally said, "I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see.”

This is definitely a statement that many people would agree with. Because we see everyday things everyday (thank you, Captain Obvious), things we don't see are new and exciting and therefore more interesting.  It doesn't mean we dislike the everyday things, but humans like lives that aren't static. Imagination is a great way to switch things up for oneself and for people viewing one's photography. It can also show people that think imagination is just for kids that it is for everyone.

Another photographer, Arnold Newman, said, "Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world."

 

I think this is entirely true. There is a saying that goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words" but the picture could be lying. A picture is one instance and although you can capture emotion and feeling in a photograph, it is usually a conscious effort to get that emotion. If the paparazzi are photographing somebody, that person being photographed could look very tired and bored, but in fact, they're just sitting reading the paper and drinking coffee. Therefore the photo is an illusion. The viewer creates a narrative within the photograph that doesn't actually exist. Therefore, photography can tell a lie as easily, or more so, than the truth.