Do we still believe in photographs?

“Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs”

- Ansel Adams.

I want t trust photography but I know I can’t.

I do tend to trust photography but I know I shouldn’t.  

I want photographers to tell me rather than to mislead me.  To me it feels like lying when I am lead to trust a photograph to find out later I can’t.  

We miss so much context when we view photography on the internet. It’s no different to texting jokes.  We need to explicitly tell people we are making a joke in a text because we don’t have the other visual clues to pick up on.  The wink, the smile. So we include them in our messages to make up for that shortfall.   With our photography we need the same clarity attached to the work. 

Do you still believe in photographs?  

I do.

Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko National Park.  Photograph and text copyright ©️ Len Metcalf 2018