If you think about it, it’s pretty darn mystical about the way, in general, we view photographs-objectively and subjectively.
Few of us, especially here, on this feed, have any sort of background or training in art and photography.
We don’t view photographs like, say, an art critic or museum curator might, “objectively”, pouring over them with qualitative discernment and evaluation for a wider viewing audience.
Most of us view photographs, “subjectively”, for ourselves, through the lens of our own life experiences-good, bad, and ugly.
What does the photograph mean to us?
In other words, and aptly so, when we each look at photographs, we tend to think and interpret them relative to our own life awareness.
It’s not a selfish thing, it’s a life thing.
We are not, in a way, looking at the objective photograph per se, instead, we are looking at a subjective version of that photograph and, more important, its applicability to each of us.
We see a photo of a person and we begin, unknowingly, to judge that person against our own body types and facial features-eyes, hair color, complexion, weight, size, shoulders, breasts, teeth, noses, etc
We see a picture of a scenic and we began to wander and wonder, in our minds, about our own travels or lack thereof.
We see a photo of food and we being to think about what we’ll be cooking later in the day, what we just ate, or how healthy or unhealthy our diet is?
We see a photo of a couple in love and we begin, quietly and softly, to evaluate our own successes and failures in the love and romance department.
We see a sexy, boudoir shot and we think…
We look at photographs mostly through the lens of our human experience.
Photographer types might be a slight exception to this rule as most are trained to look at photographs through light, color, and design, ie “objectively”.
The trippy thing to me, and what I enjoy most about sharing my photos, is wondering what story is playing in your head, as you look at my photography.
I’m guessing that it will be quite a different story that played in my head while I was shooting that same subject, scene, or scenario.
Let’s do a small experiment here.
Pick a single photograph from this collection, any photograph, what is the first, honest, thing that came to mind when you looked at this photograph?
Click
Jack
