Rambling about Photography

In today’s culture of altered/fake news people, especially young people, are increasingly cynical and skeptical about the truth about images. Images are not truthful. They were never more than the symbols of the artifice of the world that humans have created, but that is now becoming abundantly clear with the pervasiveness of photography and the internet, and that is a jarring realization to many. Some photographers now are even purposefully making false images to create something that will be interpreted that align with facts, using a lie to tell the truth. This is not new thinking, but a whole new world is being exposed all at once, and people are being forced to become highly literate in sophisticated imagery.

 The myth is that photographs are truthful, that they are reality. On the other hand they are more than likely the best way to describe our world visually. So how do we reconcile these opposing forces? I believe we should become more thoughtful and involved in our photographic creation and interpretation. We should in essence all become fabulous story tellers and story receivers, and learn to slow down and check the facts when the image or story warrants it. 

This is how I felt about photography since becoming heavily invested in it many years ago; which is why I create fictions based on reality to explore “my version” of Appalachia.

Story telling has become a more real truth than documentation because the interpretation of it always becomes skewed when it is viewed as “real.”