Lesson 6, Discussion 6 — Tomiris Issayeva

“The photographer tends to remember what was left outside the frame, and instant when he fired the shutter.”

This quote is a reference to a photographer’s power in manipulating the content of her/his photograph and the way the viewer perceives it. This idea extends to what we discussed in class in that most of the time, an image is staged — a reality, which is inevitable given the fact that the photographer chooses a specific angle, a specific frame, and so on. I think that this idea of leaving certain content outside the frame and thereby staging a photograph can be applied to social media and our technologically dominated world, which is once again something we touched on in class. Precisely, I think that this quote has to do with a fake reality that platforms like Instagram create, in that the majority of the time, a user posts very specific and carefully chosen content, leaving out all the “bad” or simply unwanted things, only to show what he/she wants his/her followers to see. Yet, the user never forgets what was left outside the frame, or what failed to make it to the “gram,” since the omitted content continues to be a part of a daily reality that cannot be faked by instagram or other technological tools. (14)

“The truth is, digital cameras made me feel like I was in reproduction hell…Anything can be deleted. Analog photography has to do with choice, the special treatment of a moment. (9)

I chose this quote because I find it to be an accurate description of how much photography culture has changed over the years. When the art form first originated and way before technology experienced such a dramatic “explosion”, a single photograph (you were lucky if there were 2, while 3 was a dream) was the norm. This norm made both the event and the photograph so much more special. Indeed, now that I look back at my family’s old photo albums I cannot help but admire the images, both for their vintage appeal and uniqueness…there is only a single photograph from my mom’s high school graduation ceremony, but there are well-over 40 from mine, not even mentioning the 100 other ones that have been clogging my camera roll. Interestingly, I looked at the graduation pictures on my phone once. In contrast, I often look back at that one picture of my mom in her graduation dress, somehow managing to find a new detail every time I look at it. This distinction applies to analog and digital photography in that with analog photography, the film roll carries a certain “preciousness” because with each new snapshot there becomes less of it. Meanwhile, digital photography is representative of a new age, one in which a single event can get hundreds of images since there is no need to worry about the fleeting film roll.