Visual Culture. Edited by Chris Jenks.
As photographers how do we understand the nature of the world. Even though we can see the world we might not know something. If you really look at the world, can you understand what is going on?
Eugene Smith wanted to over-turn myth, and believed there was a thing out there that can be known. Chris Jenks suggests that as you grow-up, how are you taught to see. There is a difference between seeing and knowing. To see is something you learn. What we see is a partial vision. A short-hand of the world. We learn to concentrate. Make snap judgements and limit what we see. Even our human form limits what we photograph. We don’t, for example, look down on the world.
“I can’t tell your whole story through simply a photograph. There are different levels. Different mediums to communicate” Margaret Morton.
We have a partial vision. We have coloration from our background, our own history, as does the subject. The output therefore is socially produced. It is a construction of all the actors.
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