Definitions HQ

The Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠tightly associated with loss. People robbed of their past seem to make the most fervent picture takers, at home and abroad.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a mass art form which, like every mass art form is practiced by most people not as art but as a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power.

Photography (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠reduced the world to its image, and yet, it is photography which is capable also of getting us back to 'reality'.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a way of refusing rather than certifying experience in that by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, experience is converted into an image, a souvenir. Travel thus becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an appropriation of the thing photographed.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠an elegiac art, a twilight art. Most subjects photographed are, just by virtue of being photographed, touched with pathos.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠both that which loots and that which preserves, that which denounces and that which consecrates.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠first of all, a way of seeing.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠guns metamorphosed into cameras because nature has ceased to be what people needed protection from. Now nature tamed, endangered, mortal needs to be protected from people. When we are afraid, we shoot. But when we are nostalgic (for a nature no longer present), we take pictures.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not about recording reality... on the contrary, it has become the norm for the way things appear to us, thereby changing the very idea of reality and of realism.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not an art form at all. Like language, it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made. Out of photography, one can make passport pictures, weather photographs, pornographic pictures, x-rays, wedding pictures, and atget's paris. Photography is not an art like, say, painting and poetry.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠participation in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.

Photography (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the illusion of giving understanding when in fact what it does is to invite an acquisitive relation to the world that nourishes aesthetic awareness and promotes emotional detachment.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠reproached as being a way of watching suffering at a distance, as if there were some other way of watching.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠soothing and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel.

Photography's (n.) highest ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠vocation is to explain man to man.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a kind of anesthetic. The shock of photographed atrocities wears off with repeated viewings, just as the surprise and bemusement felt the first time one sees a pornographic movie wear off after one sees a few more.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠to violate a person by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have... it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.

Photography (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the creation of a duplicate world of duplicate images which makes us feel that the world is more available than it really is.