Testimony of the invisible, made available to many people
through the photographic camera, was much stronger, richer, and
more authentic than the words one could write about the same.
Early photographs of the Paris sewer system-the latter a subject
of many stories, but literally out of sight-exemplify this
function. Before the camera, only drawing could capture the
visible without changing it into words or obscure diagrams.
Drawing was an interpreted representation, not only in the sense
of selection-what to draw-but also in defining a perspective and
endowing the image with some emotional quality. The camera had a
long way to go before the same interpretive quality was
achieved, and even then, in view of the mediating technology, it
was quite difficult to define what was added to what was
photographed, and why.
Today's cameras-from the disposables to the fully
automated-encapsulate everything we have to know to operate
them. There is no need to be aware of the eye metaphor-which is
undergoing change with the advent of electronic photography-and
even less of what diaphragm, exposure time, and distance are. The
experience leading to photography and the practical experience
of automated photography are uncoupled. To take a picture is no
longer a matter of expertise, but a reflex gesture accompanying
travel, family or community events, and discrete moments of
relative significance.
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