Probably all wrong but meh, just a thought

There are many issues around that topic. Actually, the question should be: “why does the photographer choose to make a photo which he/she knows will be controversial?” Why do they choose to make an image which will “push buttons”; an image which will evoke a reaction (whether “good” or “bad”); an image which pushes the envelope. Was the photo deliberate? Did the photographer want a reaction? Well, of course. Isn’t that what photographs are for?

However, the photo is just an image. The image is just a moment. How the photo, the moment, is interpreted is the real issue.

Photographs are art, and all art is subjective to the filters each of us have. Filters can be based on: environmental, social, religious, moral and personal beliefs or values.

A photo may be controversial in one culture; while on the other hand, the same image will have no effect whatsoever in another culture. (As we know from the daily news.)

This applies on a personal, individual level as well. Two people can look at the same photo and you will get two different reactions. (The reactions may be similar on some points, but not 100% the same.)

I can look at a photo and choose to think, “hey, it’s just a photo”. Someone else will look at the same photo and be outraged by what they see.

So why is that? Am I missing something? Or is the other person putting more into the image that it represents. Why do we get all up in arms over just a photo?

We all like photographs of beautiful flowers. They evoke pleasant images, right? Well, what if I was to photograph dead, decaying flowers. Then what, or how, would you feel?

Remember: the image is just an image. It doesn’t know what to be. The image doesn’t know to be “good” or “bad”.

It is us who reacts to the image. It is us who makes the image controversial. And it is controversy which sells.

Cory Johnson - Max Photography
Vancouver, Canada

Photographers are visual artists. We “see” things just a little bit differerntly. Why we see differently, and how we see, well, who knows….. We have our own “personal filters” as it were :)

I leave you with these thoughts from the intro on my website:
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I take photos because photos are nothing but a frozen moment, an impression, in time. And life itself is just an endless collection of moments and impressions.

Each of these moments leaves us with an impression. From impressions arise a myriad of thoughts. Some thoughts you like, some you may not like. Some you choose to remember, while other thoughts fall into the black hole of the mind, to be forgotten forever, dissolving into the void. Or do they?

Why do we remember the thoughts we do? What attracts us to that impression? What attracts us to that image? What of that image? Is it beautiful? Tasteful? Does it fill you with joy? Happiness? Or do you find it repulsive? What do you consider ugly? How do you define beauty? Can something so ugly and repulsive be beautiful?

There is a beauty in everything we see and interact with. But if something repulses you, then why? It only reflects something in you. Take a look, see for yourself. Or do you find the same image lovely and beautful? If so, then why? Something in you reflects that as well. But how often do we remember those impressions? Not as often as we should. If something is ugly, we should remember that, too.

Define beauty. Define ugly. Because really, in the end, everything just is. It is us who attaches an impression of that moment to our existence. The moment itself does not know anything about being beautiful or ugly. It just is. Therefore you can find a moment beautiful and ugly simultaneously.

We interact with that moment and leave our impression on it. Who else remembers that moment? Is their impression the same? The moment itself just was. It did not know what to be. But we leave our impression on that moment, that image, which carries on into the ethers of space and time.

I see order and I see chaos simultaneously. I see ugly and beauty simultaneously. I find those moments awesome - “full of awe”.

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Max Photography, Vancouver, Canada
http://www.coryjohnson.net