Wednesday 11 March 2009

Are photographs correct?

"Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?" This is a quote from Pablo Picasso, and although you could identify the human face in his early work, he went on to paint in the Cubist style. Are Cubist faces 'correct'? Take a look at some of Picasso's paintings on the internet if you are not sure about his work. Although his work is interesting, popular and critically acclaimed, I would not choose a Cubist viewpoint as 'correct' over the vast majority of mirrors or photographs.

There is a huge distortion in Cubism. There is distortion with mirrors. Have you walked past the mirrors in the fun house and seen how fat, thin, tall or short you can be? There is distortion in photography. People get dressed up for a photo. Is that the real them? If you know about digital manipulation then you know that change has occurred.

The point of the quote is that photography is an art form. It may not be 'correct' but we are not looking for correctness in art.

Happy snapping

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