The Heart of the Photograph

03

The Photographer’s Good

ACKNOWLEDGING THAT WE ALL MAKE PHOTOGRAPHS for different reasons and that one of those reasons might indeed be the acclaim of others or the communication of an idea to a broader audience (as in a commercial or advertising context), I want to take some time to explore the idea that the photographer, regardless of competing ideas, must be their first and most important audience. To put it another way, we must be the ones to determine why we make a photograph and whether that photograph succeeds at the purpose for which it was made. Even simpler, we alone must be the ones to decide if it is “good,” though I’d still rather we avoid that word.

This is not a book about professional concerns, but even if you work in a commercial ...