Photography as Meditation

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The Alleged Objectivity of Photography

Photography is often considered an objective form of documentation, but it should also be considered a subjective expression of the photographer’s personality. It is implied, I believe frivolously, that photography can be objective because it presents a moment as it occurred in a particular place at a particular time. Doesn’t photography both reveal and conceal something important about the documented moment? For example, a photograph shows the scene in front of the photographer, but it cannot simultaneously reveal the scene behind the photographer. To illustrate this concept, I developed my series called “Janus Views.” In this series, I took photographs, and then a companion photograph that shows the ...