Alfred Stieglitz

Sometimes I like to ponder the words of the Masters that have gone before me. I found this quote curious and I'm not certain of it's meaning yet. Perhaps you have an opinion to offer? I'd like to hear it.

In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. - Alfred Stieglitz

Comments

[Rick Brotherton]

For me it's an images ability to capture a precise moment in time that has the power touch your soul. A moment that would otherwise be overlooked in reality. That makes it more real and reality.

[gabriel ryan]

along the same lines, i am thinking that in time passing, reality becomes subjective to how it is remembered or processed. however, can't the way an image is captured or processed, lead to some of the same type of subjective reality?

brain freeze.

[The Actual Joey Himself]

Sometimes we forget the true power of photography. Photographers have the ability to use real objects that we see everyday (people, landscapes, urban life) and turns them into creative pieces of art that are interesting to stare at, which turns into our new reality because we are able to see things from a new perspective and triggers our minds to remember them in the interesting way we see the images.

[NIck]

I love this Stieglitz quote. For me, it is when the photographer takes all of the elements unknown to the subject at the time -- the perspective, the angle of view, composition, the depth of field, the background included or excluded, the quality of light, the slice of time, and any post-processing magic -- and combines it all into a new reality preserved in a photograph.

Nick

[Joe Photo]

Thank you all for the comments and interpretations. I think that we all agree that the preserving of time in a photograph allows us to relive and re interpret the moment far longer than the moment that was actually captured. The persuasion of the medium is that it reports the truth. And that is perceived as reality.

[Neil Cowley]

Steiglitz:"When I make a photograph, I make love."(Newhall, Nancy)

"AN AMERICAN PLACE No formal press views. No cocktail parties. No special invitations. No advertising. No institution. No isms. No theories. No game being played. Nothing ask of anyone who comes. No anything on the walls except what you see there. The doors of An American Place are ever open to all." In this announcement Stieglitz reveals his philosophy and how he ran his gallery.

My favorite character from photo history before Bresson.