“Strictly speaking one never understands anything from a photograph”

Photographs are the way people can see the world through a piece of glass. The photographer chooses how much, or little, they want the viewer to see. They only take photo’s of subjects that are important to them as a person, or what they think people should see. They are only content with the image if it illustrates what they think the subject matter should look like. Images that exist in the takers own reality are shared with others that take from the images what they want to see. Each person uses their own experiences to understand what they see within the photograph.

“photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe”

You can’t understand anything from a photograph because the images themselves are biased. Paintings aren’t seen as literal representations of reality, but as artistic impressions of the world around the artist. Photography is usually seen as being a truthful account of what is within the ima...