Thursday, January 28, 2010

Why "Perception and Description"?

I thought my first foray into blogdom should explain its title.  It is derived from a quote by Garry Winogrand on the art of photography: "This process is Perception (seeing) and Description (operating the camera to make a record) of the seeing." As a young photography student, I met Garry on two occasions in the early 1980's, once briefly and again for a more extensive conversation. With his razor sharp insight, he created this deceptively simple axiom which sums up what we should strive for in our photographs. In 1982 Garry's interview with Bill Moyers aired on PBS; I suggest you take a look: