Photography as an act of collaboration
Authors: Rutherford
Journal: Journal of Media Practice
Volume: 15
Issue: 3
Pages: 206-227
eISSN: 2040-0926
ISSN: 1468-2753
DOI: 10.1080/14682753.2014.1000043
Abstract:The camera is usually considered to be a passive tool under the control of the operator. This definition implicitly constrains how we use the medium, as well as how we look at – and what we see in – its interpretations of scenes, objects, events and ‘moments’. This text will suggest another way of thinking about – and using – the photographic medium. Based on the evidence of photographic practice (mine and others’), I will suggest that, as a result of the ways in which the medium interprets, juxtaposes and renders the elements in front of the lens, the camera is capable of depicting scenes, events and moments that did not exist and could not have existed until brought into being by the act of photographing them. Accordingly, I will propose that the affective power of many photographs is inseparable from their ‘photographicness’ –and that the photographic medium should therefore be considered as an active collaborator in the creation of uniquely photographic images.
Source: Scopus
Photography as an act of collaboration
Authors: Rutherford
Journal: Journal of Media Practice
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
DOI: 10.1080/14682753.2014.1000043
Abstract:The camera is usually considered to be a passive tool under the control of the operator. This definition implicitly constrains how we use the medium, as well as how we look at – and what we see in – its interpretations of scenes, objects, events and ‘moments’. This text will suggest another way of thinking about – and using – the photographic medium. Based on the evidence of photographic practice (mine and others’), I will suggest that, as a result of the ways in which the medium interprets, juxtaposes and renders the elements in front of the lens, the camera is capable of depicting scenes, events and moments that did not exist and could not have existed until brought into being by the act of photographing them.
Accordingly, I will propose that the affective power of many photographs is inseparable from their ‘photographicness’ – and that the photographic medium should therefore be considered as an active collaborator in the creation of uniquely photographic images.
Source: Manual
Preferred by: Rutherford