Complementary Angles
Friday, December 3, 2010 at 01:17PM When looking at photographs, it can be all too easy to forget the photographers behind the lens, their selection, their posture and intent. And yet you can see them in the photograph, I would contend, whether they intended to leave themselves there or not.
Jim was passing through town this week, and after we'd talked each other's ears off about the rust belt over a few pints, we set off on a hunt for pork buns, and on the way I paused to take this picture of the street market on Broadway:
Then Jim grabbed my camera to take his version of the same:
The same little point-and-shoot camera, the same presets, the same lighting, standing no more than a few feet away, and yet the second picture is so distinctly Jim's it's unnerving. A reminder of the photographer there behind the lens, of the way he chooses to fill his frame, the purposeful and selective intent of an angle. A reminder that no matter how many times someone says to you "your camera takes such great pictures" it ain't the camera at all: it's very much the photographer.
(Note: I don't think either of us would call either of these two photographs our greatest, but I wanted to share them to illustrate a point. Also, previously: thoughts on the photographer in the photograph.)
© Zan McQuade. All rights reserved.
photography
Reader Comments (2)
What a cool example - now I'm trying to think of how I would have photographed it :)
Such a great pictures, nice shots! I can’t imagine such a lovely place, awesome!!!
(I agree that you've said "it’s not the camera takes such great pictures it’s the photographer not the camera at all".)
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