Response to John Szarkowski's 'The Photographer's Eye'

The nineteenth century brought a very important medium to the art world.  This form of art not only broke away from tradition, but also helped people see the world from a whole new point of view.  It is called, photography.  In the reading from The Photographer’s Eye, John Szarkowski describes the great impact the camera had on the world.  He starts off by describing how photography was introduced to society.  People understood the fact that it was a way to document events, but they were confused on how it would pertain to art.  Artists had to find a way to make photography meaningful.  Unlike photography, painting required a lot of skill, was very expensive, and expressed images society knew of as being important.  Photography was completely different.  It was inexpensive, simple, and a universal way to record absolutely anything.   As technology advanced, the camera became easier to use, which increased the amount of photographers around the world.  Since taking a picture was so easy to do, some complained that the artists were just shooting anything and everything they saw, instead of stopping to think about the artistic nature of their desired image.  However, the camera was a new device.  People had to experiment as much as possible to produce the best results.  Sometimes the best images could even be by complete accident.  Photography became a way for people to look at the world through a different perspective. 

            When artists were given this new contraption known as the camera, they discovered how to manipulate its key factors to produce an artistic and memorable image.  One of these factors John Szarkowski lists is ‘the thing itself.’  He explains how the photograph taken does not show the truth, but becomes a ‘remembered reality.’  The viewer believes the image, because what it shows is all that they know of.  Another factor that can be manipulated is the detail of the image.  Szarkowski says that photographs are not narratives. They are not meant to create the story, but to make the story real.  The frame of the image is also important.  A frame can crop an image, or create a border to accentuate a specific thing.  Timing of an image is also significant.  A photograph can show an instant in time.  Making that time exposure longer can show events through time.  The last point Szarkoswki makes is the importance of the vantage point.  Depending on the point of view of the photo, the viewer is able to step into someone else’s reality.  Manipulating these many factors can create various amounts of different, individual types of photographs.  A camera creates an infinite reality for an artist to work with.