Idea Post September 22, 2010

Idea Post September 22, 2010

Word: Vulnerability

Definition: Vulnerability is the susceptibility to physical or emotional injury or attack. It also means to have one's guard down, open to censure or criticism. Vulnerability refers to a person's state of being liable to succumb, as to manipulation, persuasion or temptation.

Quote 1: " Social Concern

Let not your photographs drift away from context.

Earn the right to see what you wish to show.

Your social concern is to document life with empathy.

Be true to the image people want to have of themselves, but at the same time do show what you believe is their real image. The dignity of the poor, in particular, demands that their situation be known.

A documentary coverage can never be total. Complete a biased image by another biased image.

Be an iconoclast – a destroyer of established images."

"Photo Ethics: Aim High When You Shoot." Center for Media Literacy. Web. 22 Sept. 2010. .

This ethics for photographers was an interesting account of the ways things should go about being shot. I suppose I need to take a closer look at my photography and make sure I am not being too abrasive.

Quote 2: “Still, there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a sublimated murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”

Susan Sontag, On Photography by Susan Sontag , ISBN: 0385267061 , Page: 14-15

"Susan Sontag - American Author, Playwright, Art Critic, Film & Theatre Director - Quotes about Photography." Great Photography Quotes - Best Photographers Quotations. Web. 23 Sept. 2010. .

This Quote is from Susan Sontag’s book, On Photography. The source for the quote was an online database for art quotes.

Connection to my work:

I find that with what I shot last week made the subject matter whether that was, people or people’s houses. Made them very uncomfortable. This creation of vulnerability was not my intent but something I need to be aware of in my work.