Viewers Guide to Looking at Photos Response

“A Viewers Guide to Looking at Photos” is something everyone should read before conducting a formal analysis. It provides both a checklist-like explanation of steps toward a holistic analysis but also a more in depth discussion of what the major chunks really mean. My first couple of formal analysis were primarily a regurgitation of words I had heard in class, and were subsequently not as successful as they could have been. This paper helps to outline a mode of thinking more than anything. The subject of photos is important, because unlike a renaissance painting or Helenic sculpture, photographs are often not seen as fine art due to the ease with which we can now take a photo (whether or not that photo has any merit). The act of listing all of the ways that photos can be seen and understood illustrates both how much the choices of the photographer matter, and just how much a well-structured photograph can express.

The atmosphere presented by a photo was the topic that interested me the most. Many photos can be arranged on a way that forms are interesting, but this often amounts to finding the right angle to shoot the right form. The ability for a photographer to set up their equipment in a manner that captures a specific tone, atmosphere, or emotional response is baffling to me. Just like using any artistic tool, I am sure that using a camera becomes second nature, but the fact that the resulting image is so far removed from physical actions makes it all the more mysterious. A painter hones his touch, his eye for color, how he pulls and pushes his brush. A Photographer, on the other hand, must arranged a machine on the fly so that when it’s eye opens it sees a reality predesigned by the photographer.