amolitor
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- May 18, 2012
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- Virginia
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What if the photographer shoots a single frame and it remains unaltered, is that considered a true photograph?
Sure, it's a true photograph. But that just makes it a true lie. Every photograph is such a small fragment of anything resembling "truth" that we might as well treat it as a lie.
A photograph can be true within itself -- it can be a fair and accurate representation of what was inside that frame at that moment in time. Does that make it true? It omits an entire world, and it omits all time but the moment of exposure. It might represent the photographer's honest and best effort to represent the situation properly, and it might succeed, but we cannot know that. If I select a single sentence from Moby Dick to represent the novel, is it "true"? Is it even a reasonable question to ask?
If I selected honestly, as fairly as possible, and with great skill, I might be able to convey some small sliver of the essence of the book to you with that selected sentence, perhaps. It certainly could not convey the entire sense of the book, however. At best, I can fail approach the whole truth. If I select a different sentence, I could convey an utterly slanted idea of the book to you, at worst I could tell a complete and utter lie to you, with no part of the truth. But still, both sentences would be unaltered fragments of the book. The would be, in that sense, true. They would be "unphotoshopped".